Just a couple minutes ago I was taking a walk around the neighborhood and could smell natural gas a few blocks from my house. There were guys doing street construction on that block so I called their attention to it.
They said they could smell it too but didn't think it was from any thing they'd done.
So I walked the 2 blocks home (I didn't have my cell phone on me.) and dialed the city's non-emergency phone number and explained my concern.
They instantly forwarded my phone call to the local gas company.
The gas company said they would send a truck out to check on it within an hour.
Nanohedron wrote:I would have done the exact same thing, and wasted no time. I think you were just being responsible, civic-minded, and a good neighbor. Good for you.
I'll third the motion. That's why they put that smell in in the first place.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
I also think you did the right stuff. I'd have gone straight to 911. The construction guys are a bad sign. They always think it couldn't be anything they did.
In addition, I think I would have spent a little more time trying to identify the source (not mentioned in your poll options), but basically the same as above: call 911. I don't think this would be especially dangerous if you were outdoors, as the gas was already dissipating, but you shouldn't be smelling gas in the first place. There have been incidents where a whole row of houses have blown up due to a gas leak, so it's nothing to be trivialized.
djm
I'd rather be atop the foothills than beneath them.
You did exactly as I would have done. And good for you!
anniemcu
--- "You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
--- "Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
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Here in Sunny Bourne End, the Paris of the Thames Valley, we have had a smell of gas at the end of Wharf Lane for ...ooooh, about four years.
Transco, the organisation that is responsible for the transport of gas from the various independant gas suppliers to the bamboozled customer - we get our gas from Southern Electric, and our Electricity from British Gas - we really do! - finally dug up the road.
It dug up Wharf Lane.
It dug up the Parade at Nag's head Corner.
It dug up the Parade at Wakeman Road.
The wharf lane hole was big and lasted some time. Eventually it got filled in. The other two holes remain.
They remain because they discovered petrol in the hole at Wakeman Road. This is not discovering a natural resource, but a leakage from the Petrol Station opposite. It is therefore unsafe to continue work in the hole.
But the Petrol Station denies it is their leak. It is remotely possible it could have come from the other petrol station half a mile up the road. There is an institution somewhere that can trace petrol by some sort of signature and identify its source. This was due to be carried out in April.
We don't know what has happened since, if anything.
Both the holes are still there.
And there is still a smell of gas.
Last edited by Innocent Bystander on Tue Sep 30, 2008 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks for the fast replies folks. I always wonder if I'm turning into a busy body in matters like this. I've been called Gladys Kravitz in the past.
Our city's non-emergency number (311) is normally for reporting things like traffic lights burning out, trees falling down, or graffiti.
I didn't realize they'd transferred my phone call to the gas company until the gas company told me who they were and asked what I was calling them for.
djm, the last time I smelled natural gas while on a walk it was on a crowded down town street at night and I almost didn't make it out of the area before passing out from it. A couple people got a ride to the hospital that night because of being over come by the fumes.
This time I was more concerned that someone might light up a cigarette while I was still hanging around.
My family was the beneficiary of a concerned neighbor like you. Way to go. When we first moved into this neighborhood, there was a never ending cycle among a road crew, the gas company, & the water company. A road crew paved our road but messed up a gas line. The gas company dug up the road to fix the gas line. The road crew re-paved the road and messed up a water line. When the water company fixed the water line, they messed up the gas line. This went on for months.
Anyway.....some concerned neighbors came to our house to say our yard smelled of gas. The gas company came, shut off the lines, told us about a leak inside our house, and said we'd have to get a private company to fix the problem. All the jiggling around of all the lines caused all of our gas pipe connections to need to be retightened. We could have blowed up.
Rose tint my world. Keep me safe from my trouble and pain. 白飞梦
In fact, I'm sure with the weather getting colder, I'll call in the next few days.
Our next door neighbor has no concept about home ownership, and doesn't listen to suggestions. Every year, when she turns her furnace on, I smell mercaptan. The first time it took the gas company forever to trace it down - turns out she had gas going up the flue from the furnace, and it was coming out her chimney and then "settling" depending on how the wind was blowing.
Now when I smell it (usually in the morning when I"m getting in my car because it's parked where the wind blows off her roof), I tell the person responding to just get a ladder, climb on her roof, and stick the meter there - and they'll detect it.
The gas company then shuts the main off going back to her house.
It's worked the past 3 years that way.
She's usually gone at work (she's a nurse and works 12 hours shifts) when it happens.
I've tried suggesting that she might want to get her furnace serviced before she turns it on. I've suggested companies to call. She has to eventually call someone, because the gas company won't turn her gas on without proof that she's had the thing corrected.
