URGENT - Strong Gas smell in our Apartment building

4th floor of 5 floor building. Central room open to all floors for ventalation for gas canisters. STRONG gas smell coming from our ventalation room where the water heater is. We have turned the water heater off and the gas canister to off. The smell is still VERY strong.

What should we do?

In the US you could call the gas company 24-7 or even the fire department 24-7 to come check the building out.

You hear all the time of carzy people killing their families and I just hope some nut in our building didnt leave his gas on to do such a thing.

I would get out ASAP, taking your pets with you, and any valuables such as passport, etc., in case the gas is flammable.

Knock on some doors on the way out, or buzz every apt once outside.

But get out ASAP, just to be on the safe side.

Not sure who you should call, but once you’ve woken your neighbours, they’ll ring someone for you.

[quote=“Quarters”]4th floor of 5 floor building. Central room open to all floors for ventalation for gas canisters. STRONG gas smell coming from our ventalation room where the water heater is. We have turned the water heater off and the gas canister to off. The smell is still VERY strong.

What should we do?

In the US you could call the gas company 24-7 or even the fire department 24-7 to come check the building out.

You hear all the time of carzy people killing their families and I just hope some nut in our building didnt leave his gas on to do such a thing.[/quote]

Shut down anything remotely involved with your gas supply, throw open all of your windows and get the hell out of the building…Now.

The above is good advice. Maybe someone could offer a number he could call, and then make this one a sticky?

The only other explanation I can offer is that the plumbing in your building is wonky and the vent pipe for the stack sewage line is venting through a floor drain. You would get a strong methane smell from this. Is it worse at other times of the day (ie heavy bathroom times)?

Follow the first advice first, I’m just speculating on secondary options, and methane is explosive as well.

Even if there isn’t a fire, those fumes will mess with you. GET OUT. Find a neighbor and explain, they’ll know who to call.

The fire department is the one to call.

And that’s 119.

It’s wotrh repeating here not to turn on or off any electrical equipment when you smell gas as the slightest spark can ignite the fumes. If you haven’t turned your electric stuff off, then leave it on and just go out until the fire brigade get there.

Alternatively, light a cigarette, if you get to finish it, then it probably wasn’t as bas as you thought.

HG

I read this thread backwards - i.e. from newest back to the OP - and I thought it sounded pretty serious. When I saw it had been started by Quarters (the former duck boy) I laughed and relaxed. I’m sure there’s no need to worry folks. :laughing:

I’ve just seen this show on discovery channel.

The resident kept complaining and the gas company guy came and calibrated his gas detector to zero in the building where the problem was then went down to the basement and could not detect any gas because he was an idiot nd later the whole building blew.

Now that was the USA, so God knows what will happen here.

Last week we had a small leak also and found the gas regulator was bad even though only 6 months old. The gas man replaced it with one that has a special cut-off valve in case of leaks. That cost us 1,000 n.t. but got 300 off on the faulty one.

In case anyone is interested; the way to test for such a leak is to take a large bowl with some soap in it and then fill by spraying with water to make bubbles. Slosh some of this on the regulator and if it bubbles up you know there is a leak.

Actually, it was something to worry about. The folks that live above us would not answer their buzzer or door knocks. We and our neighbors were confident they were home. After persistant buzzing they woke up and we alerted them to the situation. Their hose had poped off their regulator on their gas canister and was leaking gas into their home and our building. They had gone down for the nite and probably would not have woken the next morning had we not woken them. We aired out the place and now all is well. It gave us quite a scare.

Quarters wrote [quote]Actually, it was something to worry about.[/quote]

:blush: Damn it - I hate being wrong! Sorry for implying that you were a worry wart, and well done sorting things out!! :bravo: :notworthy:

Duckman, you’ve just saved the lives of your neighbors. Well done!

Yes, yes. Bravo. Now you have the right to yell at anyone who litters for the next two weeks. :sunglasses:

BTW, the smell of bbq coals is wafting into my room as I type. Any advice?