Natural Gas Scare

[ConnorSB]

Wow... that was freaky.

Here's what just happened. I heard this loud sound start, like a big car idling, and then about ten minutes later I smelled natural gas. So i checked the stoves and the furnace, and everything was cool, and I couldn't figure out what was going on. So I got a flashlight and i was about to go outside to see what was up, where that sound was coming from, when my dad came home. He smelled it too, really strong, so he called 911.

The dispatcher basically told him that there had been a pipe break at Stanford University, which is maybe a quarter of a mile from my house, and that they were flushing the pipes from the Sand Hill end. Sand Hill is a road that is literally 200 feet from my house. And thats where the sound was coming from. So at the thought of some big truck spewing natural gas over our neighborhood, my dad thought it prudent that we go get ice cream.

So we did, and we came back, and everything was fine, although we drove by the place where they were flushing the pipes and it was LOUD, and you could really smell the thing they add to make natural gas smell. It doesnt smell anymore, and the highest concentration is probably gone...

But it was kinda freaky to think that natural gas was spewing over my neighborhood, and into my house. And I still have an english paper to finish!

Well, back to things as usual.

Connor "How OT do you want me to make it?" SB

 

[William Ronald]

Something like this happened when I was a kid, and we had to leave our houses and walk to the end of the block. No one had to be evacuated.

Mind you, I looked silly trying to control two dogs on leashes, hold onto a cat, and keep a birdcage in the other hand.

 

[Piratecat]

Some doctor in a nearby town blew up his entire house when he rented a backhoe and accidentally bumped the gas pipe buried under his yard. Got his nonagenarian mother out of the house with less than a minute to space before the house went up.

Glad all was okay with you.

 

[alsih2o]

So at the thought of some big truck spewing natural gas over our neighborhood, my dad thought it prudent that we go get ice cream.
SB

good man, your dad.

glad you are o.k.

 

[Angcuru]

Speaking of a gas explosion, does anyone remember a few years back when there was that huge fire at an Exxon gasoline storage facility? I remember my dad was chief of the local volunteer fire department (that would be Iselin) at the time, and he spend three days over there helping keep the thing under control. Ironic that there was not a single house fire in our district while he was chief, but a gas tank blew up and made national headlines OUT of our district, and he had to go anyway. Still has a plaque on his office wall that he got for helping out.

I feel reminded of the one time the alarm DID go off for a house fire during his time as chief. Everyone got all excited and the whole department was mobilized, including a police helicopter just for good measure. So they go over to where the fire was, and see no smoke WHATSOEVER. They bust open the door and rush in, searching the whole house, while my dad is standing outside, practically vibrating in anticipation. A few minutes later, the whole crew comesout following the 1st Lieutenant, who is holding a citronella candle in one hand. He and my dad stand there looking at it.

"It appears we have a working candle fire in progress." Says the lieutenant into the radio, and everyone is struck dumb with shock. He turns to my dad, upends the candle into a snowdrift, putting it out. "Fire extinguished." he says into the radio. Then they all drive back to the station, and everyone who was there never lets my dad forget that he was the only Fire Chief in the HISTORY of our town to have had a working 'Candle Fire' during his time as chief.

Just a funny anecdote.