Odor Of Gas
As the title of my blog states, it was just another typical day. We probably ended up with a total of 10 runs, 1 was legit.
It seems that days at the firehouse run in cylcles. Some days are difficulty breathing days, some are seizure days, some are chest pain days.. Yesterday was "Odor Of Gas" day. Out of the whole days runs, I believe we responded to 4 that were dispatched as odor of gas. Now mind you, if you have a natural gas leak in your house, that could be bad for you. If you don't asphyxiate, the impending explosion might cause you grief. If a call comes in for an odor of gas inside a residence, the response is an engine and a ladder, all steaming to your house with lights and sirens hell bent for election to get you out of your home and find/fix/mitigate the leak and end the emergency. Our 4 "odor of gas" runs were like this...
#1 "I don't know what I smelled, it just seemed like it could be gas, so I called 911 to have it checked out." Our monitor found nothing, but our noses thought that it could be related to the half a dozen cats in the house that seemed to not have a litter box.
#2 We were called to a house because the neighbors thought they smelled gas coming from the residence. Monitors showed nothing, but we did find a small, dried puddle of what used to be gasoline in front of the house from a car that was parked there that morning.
#3 Had a mutual aid run to an apartment building where the occupants of an apartment thought they smelled gas. I'm not sure what the first arriving apparatus found, but it must not have been gas, they cancelled us before we arrived.
#4 This run was in the middle of the night, as a lot of the real dumb ones are. We arrived to find a group of obviously drunk people standing in their front yard because their house was supposedly full of gas. I can't blame 'em, that's what you're supposed to do. Our monitors showed no gas in the house, and we attributed this to the fact that they don't even have a natural gas line run to their house. Everything was electric. I'm not really sure what they smelled, but it wasn't gas...
We did have a fire yesterday. A couple in their 80's decided to defrost the 'fridge in the basement with a candle. Candle caught the plastic lining of the icebox on fire, fire spread to the contents of the basement, *poof*, basement fire. It went pretty normal on our part, but they were a funny couple. The man smelled smoke, went down to investigate, and came back up stairs to tell his wife that she may want to leave because the basement was on fire. She said "Why leave if the fire's in the basement?" He went back down to try to put the fire out. Meanwhile, the smoke got too thick upstairs, so the Mrs. decided to, instead of leave the house, got to the bedroom. A brave neighborhood school teacher happened to be passing by the house, so he went in to get people out. Talked the guy into going outside, found the woman in the bedroom. That's when we showed up. The brave guy was stuck in the bedroom window, trying to get out and the woman was on the bedroom floor. We got everyone out and they were all ok. Basement didn't fare so well.
It seems that days at the firehouse run in cylcles. Some days are difficulty breathing days, some are seizure days, some are chest pain days.. Yesterday was "Odor Of Gas" day. Out of the whole days runs, I believe we responded to 4 that were dispatched as odor of gas. Now mind you, if you have a natural gas leak in your house, that could be bad for you. If you don't asphyxiate, the impending explosion might cause you grief. If a call comes in for an odor of gas inside a residence, the response is an engine and a ladder, all steaming to your house with lights and sirens hell bent for election to get you out of your home and find/fix/mitigate the leak and end the emergency. Our 4 "odor of gas" runs were like this...
#1 "I don't know what I smelled, it just seemed like it could be gas, so I called 911 to have it checked out." Our monitor found nothing, but our noses thought that it could be related to the half a dozen cats in the house that seemed to not have a litter box.
#2 We were called to a house because the neighbors thought they smelled gas coming from the residence. Monitors showed nothing, but we did find a small, dried puddle of what used to be gasoline in front of the house from a car that was parked there that morning.
#3 Had a mutual aid run to an apartment building where the occupants of an apartment thought they smelled gas. I'm not sure what the first arriving apparatus found, but it must not have been gas, they cancelled us before we arrived.
#4 This run was in the middle of the night, as a lot of the real dumb ones are. We arrived to find a group of obviously drunk people standing in their front yard because their house was supposedly full of gas. I can't blame 'em, that's what you're supposed to do. Our monitors showed no gas in the house, and we attributed this to the fact that they don't even have a natural gas line run to their house. Everything was electric. I'm not really sure what they smelled, but it wasn't gas...
We did have a fire yesterday. A couple in their 80's decided to defrost the 'fridge in the basement with a candle. Candle caught the plastic lining of the icebox on fire, fire spread to the contents of the basement, *poof*, basement fire. It went pretty normal on our part, but they were a funny couple. The man smelled smoke, went down to investigate, and came back up stairs to tell his wife that she may want to leave because the basement was on fire. She said "Why leave if the fire's in the basement?" He went back down to try to put the fire out. Meanwhile, the smoke got too thick upstairs, so the Mrs. decided to, instead of leave the house, got to the bedroom. A brave neighborhood school teacher happened to be passing by the house, so he went in to get people out. Talked the guy into going outside, found the woman in the bedroom. That's when we showed up. The brave guy was stuck in the bedroom window, trying to get out and the woman was on the bedroom floor. We got everyone out and they were all ok. Basement didn't fare so well.
posted by Bill at 10:35 AM
2 Comments:
They smelled the odor of electric. You know, like when someone has a light socket with no bulb in it and they accidently turn the light switch on.
Cool blog, Bill.
No gas line, and they smelled gas? Well, you better go back and check for noxious farts. Isn't that in your job description? (You poor guy; I feel for -- and respect -- you.)
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