The Gas Years

By Michael N. Ciampo

Walking into the firehouse and glancing at the company’s riding assignment board, I had to chuckle: Written above our unit designation was “The Con Ed War Years” (Con Ed is an abbreviation for our local gas provider and “The War Years” relates to the famous fire years of the past). With the recent gas explosions occurring in our city, our “odor of gas” runs have drastically increased. Of course, many of these odors often turn out to be something else, but they’ve also turned into “Hurry up and act!” Let’s look at some of these incidents to see what may be on your horizon.

The Stove

Responding to an odor of gas on the third floor, we picked up an odor as we got to the second floor. Putting the halligan tool into the top of the apartment door frames and flexing the doors inward, we held the gas meter up to the crack we created to see if the leak was on this floor. Many times in large multiple dwellings, the caller may smell something and the odor is rising, so if you begin to smell gas or food on the stove or another type of odor on a certain floor other than the caller’s, it’s good practice to start knocking or flexing the doors inward to see if you pick up an odor or some light smoke. Luckily, at one apartment the meter’s audible warning alert began to scream. We knocked on the door, and as a young woman opened it, the odor of gas about knocked us over as she said, “Is everything okay?” Clearly, you could see she was sleeping and we startled her. We informed her of the condition as we entered the apartment. We didn’t turn on any lights and told her not to either so a spark from the light switch wouldn’t create an ignition source.

As we got to the kitchen, we noticed that there was no gas meter in the kitchen; so many apartments have them. (Meters in these locations can mean a gas-fed fire if they fail during a kitchen or apartment fire.) Pulling the stove off the wall and tracing the flex gas line with the probe of the gas meter, we didn’t pick up a leak and worked our way back to the quarter-turn shutoff valve. We still had nothing.

Noting that it was a new stove installation with a new shutoff valve and flex line, we traced the piping back into the wall, and the meter began to go into a higher audible warning. We were getting closer to the source. The piping made a 90° turn and disappeared into the wall. We poked an inspection hole above the pipe and inserted the meter, and it went into its highest audible warning mode. We radioed a member to check the basement for a gas meter or riser pipe for the line of apartments we were working in.

Con Ed showed up and, once informed of the situation, personnel began to show some more concern and notified their supervisor. We were directed to get into the apartments above and poke holes in the kitchen walls to take gas readings. It seemed the walls and voids were a perfect avenue for the gas to travel. The gas concentration in the walls was high, and our concern was that a spark in one of the other apartments would set off some type of fire or, worse, an explosion.

One of the game plans was to get to the top floor and check the cockloft and kitchen wall for a gas accumulation; the cockloft was clear, but the wall was showing signs of gas. Con Ed requested we open the windows on the top floor and make a big hole in the kitchen wall to vent the gas. In addition, we opened up the sealed dumbwaiter shaft on the roof to assist in any kitchen ventilation we could get. As we did this, Con Ed located and shut down the gas riser to that line of apartments. We assisted for more than two hours, taking meter readings and venting apartments on both sides of the leak and above and below.

The Meter

A few hours later, we got a report of a gas leak on the fourth floor of another multiple dwelling. The caller was the tenant in the renovated apartment and was concerned because she was smelling gas. The kitchen was a complete rehab, and the layout changed to an open concept, so the gas line could have been moved. That was the case – we spotted the gas meter on an opposite wall pretty far from the stove.

We first started checking the stove: All knobs were off; it was new, so it had no pilot lights; and we put the gas meter in the oven and didn’t pick up any gas. We pulled the stove away from the wall and began checking the flex line and quarter-turn shutoff valve – all were good, so the next place we checked was the gas meter on the wall. As a member climbed up on a chair with the detection meter, it starting going into full alert when he put it up to the decorative box surrounding the gas meter.

Realizing the meter was encapsulated, we informed the chief that it would be a minute before we could get it shut down. After the last incident, we quickly sent a company to the floor above to check that apartment for an accumulation of gas in the wall or apartment. The decorative ensemble encompassing the meter was made of plywood, covered with drywall, and substantially attached to the wall. As we were using a reciprocating saw to cut the box open to gain access to the shutoff, Con Ed workers entered the apartment and said, “Not you again; now what this time?”

MICHAEL N. CIAMPO is a 31-year veteran of the fire service and a lieutenant in the Fire Department of New York. Previously, he served with the District of Columbia Fire Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is the lead instructor for the FDIC Truck Essentials H.O.T. program. He wrote the Ladders and Ventilation chapters for Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II (Fire Engineering, 2009) and the Bread and Butter Portable Ladders DVD and is featured in “Training Minutes” truck company videos on www.FireEngineering.com.

For related video go to http://bit.ly/FEOnFMc617

My Turn Under the Microscope
Outside the Lines
Assistance Accepted
Operational Miscue