Gas was leaking from an LPG cylinder on a lorry delivering 50 cylinders when it drove in Estrada do Istmo – informally known as Cotai Strip – near The Parisian Macao casino-hotel yesterday morning, causing the road to be temporarily closed to traffic as firefighters sprayed water over the leaking cylinder for 1 1/2 hours until the gas stopped leaking, the Fire Services Bureau (CB) said in a statement.
The LPG company believed that the gas leak was caused by the malfunctioning of the cylinder valve.
When the lorry drove past The Parisian Macao from Coloane to Taipa in the avenue, the driver saw, in his wing mirror, white smoke coming out of a cylinder, because of which he stopped the lorry at the roadside and called the emergency services, according to the CB statement.
Firefighters rushed to the scene after the bureau received a report at around 10:45 p.m., the statement said.
A number of technicians from the LPG company rushed to the scene in an attempt to control to the incident but in vain.
According to the statement, firefighters removed the leaking cylinder from the lorry and put it beside the avenue’s central divider. They kept spraying water over the cylinder for 1 1/2 hours until they confirmed that the gas had stopped leaking. The driver meanwhile drove the lorry away from the scene.
Two-way traffic on the avenue was suspended while the firefighters were carrying out their operation.
After the firefighters stopped spraying water over the cylinder, another lorry from the LPG company removed the cylinder at around 12:30 p.m., the statement said.
Two-way traffic returned to normal in the early afternoon. No one was injured in the incident.
These two photos show firefighters spraying water over the leaking LPG cylinder in Estrada do Istmo – informally known as Cotai Strip – yesterday morning. – Courtesy: TDM
