Smell Gas in Your House? What to Do Right Now

Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania sums it up in three words: stop, leave, call. Stop what you are doing and do not light a match or smoke. Leave the building right away and take everyone, including pets, with you. Then call 911 and the gas company's emergency number from a safe location away from the building, and wait there for crews to arrive.

Columbia Gas warns against using anything that could make a spark on your way out, including a phone, light switch, appliance or flashlight, and says not to start your car or use the garage door to leave. Walk out through a regular door. Columbia Gas also says not to stop to open windows; just get out.

Do not go looking for the leak, and do not go back in for belongings. A neighbor's porch, the far end of the driveway or the sidewalk down the street is a better place to make the calls than your own front step.

Natural gas has no smell of its own. Utilities add an odorant called mercaptan so that a leak smells like rotten eggs or sulfur. Columbia Gas says you may also hear a hissing, whistling or roaring sound, or see blowing dirt, bubbling water or dead grass and plants over a buried line outside.

A faint whiff right at the stove when a burner is lit is not the same as a smell that fills a room or the basement, but you do not have to decide which one you have. Both Columbia Gas and Peoples say to call when in doubt, and Columbia Gas says it will send someone to check the odor at no cost whether or not there is a leak.

If you also feel headachy, dizzy or sick, or a carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, tell the 911 dispatcher. Peoples lists both gas odors and carbon monoxide symptoms as emergencies.

Most homes on natural gas in Indiana County and Westmoreland County are served by Peoples or Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, depending on the street. The name of your utility and its 24/7 emergency number are printed on your monthly gas bill and on the utility's website. If you cannot find the number from outside, call 911 first; dispatchers can reach the utility.

Homes in rural parts of both counties, from the farms around Indiana and Homer City to the hills outside Ligonier and Mt Pleasant, often run on propane from a tank in the yard instead of a utility line. Propane is also odorized and smells much the same. Follow the propane steps below and call your propane supplier, not the natural gas company.

The Propane Education and Research Council gives nearly the same first steps: put out flames, do not touch switches or appliances, and get everyone out. If you can reach the tank safely, close the main supply valve on the tank by turning it to the right, clockwise. Do not go near the tank if you think the leak is at the tank itself.

From a neighbor's house or well away from the leak, call your propane retailer. If you cannot reach them, call 911 or the fire department. Propane is heavier than air and can settle in a basement or low spot, so stay out until the retailer or responders say it is safe. Never turn the gas back on at the tank yourself; the council says a qualified professional must check the system for leaks first.

This part surprises many homeowners. Peoples explains that its responsibility usually ends near the property line, and that repairs to the customer service line, the house line that runs from the meter to your appliances, and the gas appliances themselves are the customer's responsibility. The gas meter belongs to the utility.

So if the utility finds a leak inside the house or on your side of the meter, it will usually shut off or tag that part of the system and leave the repair to you. Peoples says the work must be done by a qualified installer, who then contacts Peoples for a leak test and submits a Service Installation Record before gas service can be restored. Ask any plumber you call whether they handle that paperwork.

Older homes in Indiana, Blairsville, Greensburg, Latrobe, Jeannette and Murrysville often have black-iron gas pipe that has been added onto over the years, plus flexible appliance connectors on dryers, ranges and water heaters. Those joints and connectors are common leak points, and a gas plumber can pressure-test the whole house line rather than just the one fitting the utility flagged.

In November and through the winter, a shut-off gas line can mean no furnace and no hot water. Keep the house warm safely: an electric space heater plugged directly into a wall outlet and kept three feet from anything that can burn is far safer than any fuel-burning heater indoors. Never heat the house with a gas oven, grill, camp stove or a generator inside or in the garage.

If the house will be cold for a long time in freezing weather, protect the plumbing too. Open cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls and, if the gas will be off overnight in a deep freeze, consider shutting the main water valve and draining the lines. Our burst pipe and no heat town pages cover what to do if pipes freeze.