Monday, October 29, 2012

Propane Gas Drama!

I haven't taken Bandido for a walk since I came back from Utah.  I have been letting him use his run.  Today at 4 I took him for a walk and smelled gas even from the street.  My gas was only at 30% yesterday when Mike checked it so it couldn't be mine.  I wondered if my neighbor had dumped his boat gas?  Had a bad leak?  I looked around the neighborhood to see where it could be coming from. 

As I brought Bandido back I looked at my own gas tank.  Oh, my, they had filled it today, up to 70% full!!!  And the gas smell was coming from my tank and there was a definite hissing sound.

I called the local office immediately but it went straight through to the national office.  She told me to leave the house and could I turn the gas tank off?  I told her to stay on the line so I could be sure I was doing it right.  I did it.  The hissing continued.  She said she would send someone out immediately and not to turn anything in the house off or on, just leave.

My neighbors were leaving to go out to dinner but he came over and totally agreed there was definitely gas coming out.  We chatted for quite awhile about the election, etc. and then they left.  I walked a bit and finally the young man came.

He or someone had left a red button open and it was definitely emitting gas!!!  What I learned.  The only way it could cause an explosion is if my tank was covered with heavy snow and the gas leak was on for a long period, week or so, then it would build up under the snow and could explode.  However, if the gas had gone undetected I could have a huge bill and not so much gas for my house.  I also learned that when I turned off the gas outside it also turned off the pilot of the water heater so he lighted it again--after checking everything outside and making sure it was all working correctly.

I also learned the stove top, oven, and furnace have electrical emission systems so they were not affected by turning off the gas.  If I have a power outage, I can light the pilots in the stove top burners by hand but the stove would not work so don't even try to light that pilot.  Anyway good information.  I also told him I appreciated it when they used to leave a note at my door to tell me they had filled my tank.  He said people who were not here all year did not like the note because then people would know they were gone but he said he would tell  them to leave a note at my house.

Anyway glad I was impressed to take Bandido for a walk today!  And the reason I write all this is so I can look up what I learned when it happens again.

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