FIRE Control received a call from police for help yesterday (Saturday) following an accident in which a lorry hit a gas pipe in Newton Road, Kingsteignton, and gas was leaking.

A spokesperson for the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said: ‘Fire Control immediately mobilised two fire engines from our Newton Abbot fire station along with an environmental protection unit and a specialist hazardous materials officer.

‘Control also made contact immediately with the Gas Emergency service to arrange for an engineer to attend the scene as soon as possible.

‘On arrival crews quickly established that the vehicle in question had collided with a gas air cooling unit, causing it to vent off Freon coolant gas into the air.

‘Crews monitored the situation with a specialist gas monitor until the gas had finished venting and the unit had been isolated.

‘A gas engineer has arrived on site and duty of care has been left with the occupier of the building the air cooling unit belongs to.’