scipper77
Commander
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2008
- Messages
- 2,106
Got home yesterday and heard a hissing sound around the side of the house at the gas meter. I wasn't sure if it was a leak or just the normal sound of gas rushing through it (furnace was on). So like the smart guy I am I stuck my face up to the meter and took a whiff.
There was a faint smell of gas. It was faint but was definitely gas. I told the wife about it and then called 911. Didn't take long for the police to show up. The cop smelled the same thing I did but at this point the furnace was off so the hissing stopped. We stood there with our hands in our pockets for a few and the fire dept showed up.
So here I am Me, 1 cop w/ car, 2 large fire trucks with 6-8 guys total, and one fire chief in his fancy Chevy Tahoe with the lights. The 6-8 firemen had on full gear, Hats jackets, pants boots, and even oxygen packs.
They (the FD)got out there gas sniffing device and waved it around the meter declaring it leak free. They told me that the regulators by design "burp" from time to time and that is what I smelled. The FD then went in my house and checked my furnace, hot water tank, gas fireplace and stove.
After declaring that there was no leak the boss man (I doubt he was the actual chief) suggested that they call of the local utility guy, no need for him to come since there is no leak and he uses the same leak detector that they use. I was just about ready to tell them to cancel the call to the local utility when his truck pulled up.
After a brief chat between the FD and the utility tech all of the fire trucks and PD left. The Tech looks at me and says "fire men are good at fighting fired, I am good at finding leaks." Within 30 seconds he had that gas detector lit up like a x-mas tree. Where the FD waved there wand around like freakin' Harry Potter, the tech traced the tip around every pipe nipple and coupling with precision.
I'll spare you the details on the rest of the repair (remove, replace, test) but the tech told me a good story.
A week earlier he went out to a job where a family thought they smelled gas in there enclosed porch. Harry Potter showed up and waved his wand and when they found nothing they told the homeowner that there was no gas and it was just a musty smell, not gas. They tried to call off the utility company here too. When the tech showed up he smelled the gas right away. It turns out that the service was run when the house was built around 1930. The underground pipe had cracked or rusted or something of that nature and there was gas coming up from the ground into there porch. Natural gas rises so that porch was like an upside down bilge.
By the way the utility tech told me that under no circumstance do those regulators ever burp. You should never smell gas at the meter or anywhere else for that matter.
There was a faint smell of gas. It was faint but was definitely gas. I told the wife about it and then called 911. Didn't take long for the police to show up. The cop smelled the same thing I did but at this point the furnace was off so the hissing stopped. We stood there with our hands in our pockets for a few and the fire dept showed up.
So here I am Me, 1 cop w/ car, 2 large fire trucks with 6-8 guys total, and one fire chief in his fancy Chevy Tahoe with the lights. The 6-8 firemen had on full gear, Hats jackets, pants boots, and even oxygen packs.
They (the FD)got out there gas sniffing device and waved it around the meter declaring it leak free. They told me that the regulators by design "burp" from time to time and that is what I smelled. The FD then went in my house and checked my furnace, hot water tank, gas fireplace and stove.
After declaring that there was no leak the boss man (I doubt he was the actual chief) suggested that they call of the local utility guy, no need for him to come since there is no leak and he uses the same leak detector that they use. I was just about ready to tell them to cancel the call to the local utility when his truck pulled up.
After a brief chat between the FD and the utility tech all of the fire trucks and PD left. The Tech looks at me and says "fire men are good at fighting fired, I am good at finding leaks." Within 30 seconds he had that gas detector lit up like a x-mas tree. Where the FD waved there wand around like freakin' Harry Potter, the tech traced the tip around every pipe nipple and coupling with precision.
I'll spare you the details on the rest of the repair (remove, replace, test) but the tech told me a good story.
A week earlier he went out to a job where a family thought they smelled gas in there enclosed porch. Harry Potter showed up and waved his wand and when they found nothing they told the homeowner that there was no gas and it was just a musty smell, not gas. They tried to call off the utility company here too. When the tech showed up he smelled the gas right away. It turns out that the service was run when the house was built around 1930. The underground pipe had cracked or rusted or something of that nature and there was gas coming up from the ground into there porch. Natural gas rises so that porch was like an upside down bilge.
By the way the utility tech told me that under no circumstance do those regulators ever burp. You should never smell gas at the meter or anywhere else for that matter.
