Need Opinions

[TheWife]

Thank you for sharing that! I'm glad to hear of people taking it seriously, a lot of people just kind of dismiss it and don't actually go out and get the detector.

[spotty4]

So Michelle, last night as I was falling asleep, a thought crept into my mind concerning your sis-in-law's tragedy. Shouldn't energy companies, especially those that deliver home gas, require on-site workers to carry some mobile gas detector device? That seems like a total no brainer, especially for folks that may be digging and relighting pilot lights ...

[spotty4]

Another thought has come to mind, too. Natural gas is naturally odor-less, as I understand it, and public domain gas should be treated w/ an odor so that it can be identified if leaking. If there was enough gas in the home for such an explosion, couldn't it have been identified merely by smell? Or is the gas denser than air and sink down to their feet level so its not "smellable?"

I'm sorry, I don't mean to conjure up this tragedy. These are just curious thoughts that "seem" obvious and I could just be terribly wrong.

[TheWife]

Good questions Shelley and they have good answers. To give a summary of what happened: a phone worker cut the line trying to do the phone lines. He didn't speak english and didn't have a cell phone. He had to drive 7 miles to a pay phone to call his boss. All the while, gas was leaking into the ground. He had to call his boss 5 times before he got an answer. His boss then called the gas company (and was supposed to also dispatch the fire dept. but didn't.) The gas company went out and told all the homeowners to turn off their gas appliances and leave. Then they repaired the line, but by then the gas had been seeping into the frozen February ground for well over 2 hours. They had evacuated the neighborhood, but then told everyone that it was safe to go home (without checking inside any homes first.) A gas worker told my SIL to take him to her basement to relight the water heater.

Because the gas leak was in the ground outside the home, the workers acted w/ complacency and didn't follow standard procedures. They never should have homeowners shut off their own appliances and they never should ask homeowners to go back into the home until the home has been checked with their own meters. However, they had my SIL take the worker into the home, when no one else had been in it to check it w/ a meter. The worker that went in with her did have his meter with him, but he did not have it turned on, and WHY we will never know, as he also died. The worker had done the same thing 2 years prior, and actually caused a small house fire, because he did not take a reading of the gas levels before lighting an appliance. The gas company didn't take any disciplinary action against him, just a refresher of procedure. (Which he obviously was still not following.) He'd worked for the gas company for 20 years and was probably just complacent and arrogant and busy and had probably been through the routine so many times that he started skipping steps.

As for the smell, I actually talked about that in my interview, I thought it was a very important part but they cut it out and I'm kind of bugged about that. I have heard a lot of people say "I don't need a detector, I'll be able to smell it". The reason there was no odor is because the gas seeped in through the frozen ground, up through the basement, through holes and cracks in the foundation (which is typical for foundation to have). So the ground had filtered out the smell. No one should assume they are safe w/o a detector because the gas will smell, because the same thing could happen through the ground, also because not everyone has a great sense of smell, also because if there are any candles burning or plug in air fresheners you may not smell it, also because a leak could start while you are sleeping and the smell won't wake you up. Natural or methane gas is lighter than air and will generally rise to the ceiling, while propane sinks to the ground. Because of that, if you had a peaked or vaulted ceiling, you may also not be able to smell it because it's already up so high, but could still be at poisonous or explosive levels, and it only takes a spark of static electricity from a light switch or walking across the room, to ignite it. (Some people figure, "I never use lighters so there is no spark in the home that would ignite the gas...wrong.) Thanks for the questions! I think it's sooo important for people to be educated about it so we don't get complacent ourselves and assume the danger isn't as big as it really is.

[Kristie]

I liked the first card... first of all, you want to promote the "website".... I'd take out the "visit our..." and just leave the "enter our free drawing" as that will draw people to the website and from there, they will read your message.

kwim?!