Urbana firefighters prevent potential gas explosion
When Urbana firefighters first went to investigate a medical alert call in the 1100 block of South Orchard Street, it appeared to be just an honest mistake.
The resident, a man in his 90s, had accidentally sat on his Medic Alert button. That had prompted the Urbana firefighters’ response to the east Urbana home on Dec. 15 at 5:10 p.m.
Such accidental activations happen all the time. But when Engineer Tom Long went inside the brick ranch house to speak to the resident, he immediately knew something was wrong.
“Tommy came back and his eyes were big,” said firefighter Matt Ritchie. “You could smell it when you went in the front door.”
What Long and Ritchie could smell was the rotten-egg smell of mercaptan, an ingredient added to natural gas to let people know when a dangerous gas leak is occurring. Natural gas is an explosive threat that could have literally leveled the house if a match or gas stove ignited the gas. Long and Ritchie went back to the fire engine, returned to the house with a gas monitor and went in search of the gas leak, while other firefighters ventilated the house.
“We got some readings on our gas monitor that were in the explosive range,” said Lt. Kyle Hensch. “It was just a matter of time before the gas found an ignition source.”
Finding nothing in the kitchen, Long and Ritchie went into the basement to check the furnace and hot water heater. The water heater turned out to be the problem. Newly installed by the resident in the prior week, it had a loose fitting and the firefighters could hear the gas escaping with a hiss. They promptly tightened the fitting and stopped the leak.
Hensch said the resident was lucky that he had bought a higher-quality water heater that didn’t expose its flame to the open air, or an explosion might have occurred earlier.
“I’m really glad he sat on that Life Alert that night,” Ritchie said. “That probably would have been one we heard from here (the downtown firehouse at 400 S. Vine St.)”
Hensch said firefighters often encounter small odors in doing their job and that it can be easy to discount them. He said Long and Ritchie deserve credit for checking the situation out thoroughly.
“Had these guys not pushed the issue and investigated further … I think we could have had a potential tragedy,” he said.
Fire Chief Mike Dilley said good luck and good investigative work prevented a disaster.
"I'm quite surprised we didn't have a catastrophic explosion with the amount of natural gas that had been escaping," Dilley said. "I'm really pleased our firefighters took the extra step and pursued that."
Mayor Laurel Prussing said a big part of the mission of the Urbana Fire Rescue Services is fire prevention and medical assistance.
“We have an excellent fire department and this is a good example of how they go above and beyond,” she said.
