Gas Leak
Posted by Jim at June 5th, 2004
On Wednesday, a man from Detroit Edison (our gas provider) came and installed a new gas meter inside our house. Our previous meter may have dated back to the building of the house. There were no problems with the old meter, but they replace them whenever they find them.
It smelled strongly of gas in that room of the basement, but since he had bled some gas off when he installed the meter that was to be expected.
On Thursday, it still smelled bad.
On Friday, it smelled worse. I wasn’t sure if it smelled that much worse, but Kristen was quite sure, so I called the gas company.
They had someone there within a few minutes.
It turned out that the piece of metal that used to suspend the old meter in the air had a problem at the point where the meter, the piece of metal and a pipe met. As such, it was leaking a lot of gas. Naturally, the man who came didn’t have the part needed to fix it, but he did call a “fitter” and turned off the gas.
When the fitter did come (an hour later), he fixed things fairly quickly.
It’s an event that makes me happy that 1) I live in an old house that lets a lot of air in and out and 2) I don’t smoke.
Your comment that “I wasn’t sure if it smelled that much worse, but Kristen was quite sure” confirms what our propane provider informed us… that women have a better nose for gas leaks than men. Something to keep in mind; if the Mrs. says there’s a leak, don’t argue.
I’m glad nobody got hurt from this mishap.
James
Supposedly women are just more sensitive to smells in general.
Amusingly, one of the men who came to fix the pipe commented that he didn’t recommend people bother with gas leak detectors. According to him, your nose (male or female) will likely detect the leak first.
Our gas leak detector detected nothing whatsoever.
Jim Zoetewey