ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Concerns over a possible gas leak are still top of mind for people across the region, including a North County man whose home is just a couple of miles from that explosion, which injured multiple people and damaged more than two dozen homes.
It comes after an odor on Wednesday led to multiple homes being checked.
Although the issue was resolved within a couple of hours of reporting it on Friday, the homeowner told First Alert 4 that he was initially informed it would take up to two weeks to repair the leak.
Homeowner Jesse Talley said, “It really got strong today.”
That pungent smell of the chemical additive to natural gas, giving it that rotten egg smell, wafting from the gas meter, was hard to ignore for Talley.
“I took a solution and sprayed on there and when something’s leaking, it’s going to blow bubbles and there’s pressure coming out of it,” Talley said. “It was blowing bubbles. It was blowing bubbles like frogs in a pond.”
Talley said Spire quickly arrived after his initial call, but part of why he called First Alert 4 on Friday is that Talley said he was told that repairing the part to fix the leak would be up to two weeks. However, after reaching out, everything was resolved within a few hours after his first call.
For this retired utility worker, it is a relief that the issue is fixed.
“I worked out in the field for years. I’ve been on gas explosions and they’re not good. A gas leak is a gas leak; that’s an emergency. I think it needs to be addressed right away,” said Talley.
Reaching out to Spire, a spokesperson told First Alert 4 that he can’t talk to what Talley was told and specific customer experiences, and stressed every report and call is taken seriously.
“If a customer thinks they smell gas, we encourage them to contact us. We take these things very seriously. Safety is our priority. So if you call us, we will get out there and check it out. Make sure everything is safe,” said Spire spokesperson Jason Merrill.
Merrill said it’s been a busy week of checking reports, especially in North County. On Wednesday, Spire and Florissant Valley Fire Protection District responded to multiple calls of an odor. Besides one leak found and repaired, the odor was not natural gas after an investigation. Officials with the fire department pointed to it possibly coming from a nearby landfill.
“We’ve seen a lot of that of late, where folks are smelling things. They think it may be natural gas. Still reach out to us because if you think it is gas, it is something that we need to check out,” said Merrill.
The gas smell is no longer in the air around Talley’s house, it’s something he’s going to keep an eye on.
“No longer leaking, but I’ll probably check it myself again after a while anyway to make sure,” Talley said.
Spire provided the following information about what to do if you smell a gas odor.
Safety is our primary focus at Spire and we respond to calls we receive reporting the smell of gas – which smells like rotten eggs. If a customer thinks they smell gas, we encourage them to take the following steps to stay safe:
Even if someone is unsure that what they smell is gas, the best thing to do is call us to check it out.
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