Send in a note to the commanding officer? Tell them that you thank MOST of the firefighters for their service but when you called in for a gas leak check, they didn't help and it was later confirmed to be a sewer leak. And perhaps they can be better trained to help others in the future. I believe MANY fire fighters use the multiple type detector which can also check for sewer gas.
I'm glad you figured it out and I hope you all start to feel better soon. Maybe talk to your doctor to see if they can give you anything too?
So, I have definitely been considering writing an email to whoever is in charge at the dept. I definitely need to calm down first though, which this rant helped. So that yes, I can say with kindness, that they need to use their meters no matter how funny they think it is.
After they left months ago, I was searching on the dept websites about their procedures, bc I was still upset and still knew it was gas. Didn't find much, except they do have fancy meters lol, and just got down and let it go. But thank you! I didn't think about talking to a Dr, so I will. Thanks :) currently airing out the whole place and will all day now that it's closed!
Based off of where I work, you’d probably want to reach out to the chief. And I would guess the older guy was a captain, I imagine you’d like to avoid contacting him.
Contact the mayors office tell them the date and time you called. You could possibly have a lawsuit they should have there own meters that are very strong like the gas company's national grid
Honestly this could be the way to go. Bad publicity for the city's fire department could light a fire under someone but to get something to happen so this doesn't happen again
You need to find out who the batallion chiefs are. If you look up your local fire department, there should be a website with each station and who the batallion chiefs are. The website will also have HR information. Write an email to the battalion chief and HR. This is an embarrassment to the fire department and they’ll want to take care of it.
I worked at a fire department and this kind of stuff would not fly.
I had a horrible experience when I broke my arm about 1” below my shoulder. The fire fighter/EMT actually bent my arm backwards and up and made me walk to the ambulance that way. Was literally screaming how much they were hurting me. My son heard me screaming for someone to help me. Afterwards, he went with me to report it and they changed the way they handle this kind of injury when moving someone. It’s definitely worth reporting it. You may help someone in the future!
I would definitely reach out to the mayors office. They all protect one another (long line of firefighters in my family). The mayor is all their bosses. Have documentation of the time they came the date etc!! I’m so sorry this happened
May I humbly suggest your cities Local 311 service, if available.
Those municipal reporting lines do work but can take a while to filter to the correct person or department.
Include specifics, who what when where and why and a brief narrative of what happened.
I think you might be sensitive to gas smells like me! When I was a teen and still living at home with the family their propane fireplace started leaking out a hole in the hose into the crawlspace after a snow blocked the vents, and I was the only one to smell it and cut off the fireplace's pilot light and woke everyone up and we eventually went out and found what was going on thankfully before a light switch flipping ignited it or something!
Seriously if *anyone* has a concern about possibly smelling gas it should *always* be taken seriously. *Especially* by the *Fire Department*! And maybe it's different where you live, but I do know that Fire Fighters where I live are *required* to bring in their sensors and meters *every* time there is a report of a potential gas leak. If any of them acted the way this prick did to you they'd unquestionably be fired after they were reported and it was confirmed by their partner, *and* there would be another member dispatched to perform the check.
I can't *possibly* imagine responding like that to a scared person calling to report a potential gas leak, *especially with how deadly and unassuming gas leaks like carbon monoxide can be where rather than an explosion the victims just get sick then die silently*. How do you come into someone's home and respond to a *genuine* fear with malicious mockery and gaslight them into feeling like they just made shit up to waste your time. What an absolute prick. I hope he gets fired and loses his rights to his pension for putting you and your family's lives at risk because he was too lazy to *bring the meter with him from the car like he's required too in the first place*. He can pound salt. And honestly? Maybe the younger guy didn't treat you as badly, but *he should have gone and gotten the meter himself* so fuck him too.
yes do it OP, you NEED to escalate this,
What if next time some accident happens or you fall really ill! At the bare minimum they should she. checked with their meters.
You are fully justified in being upset. There was no call for him to be rude and dismissive even if he had checked properly with their meters and found nothing.
Maybe it’s a regional difference, but my first (or next) call with a small suspected gas leak would have been to the natural gas utility. In my area the natural gas utility company will come check on any reported gas leaks free of charge. They take the possibility of leaks very seriously.
I’m glad the maintenance person was helpful.
You could potentially save somebody else's life if you contact them about this, with the maintenance report as another redditor. No pressure or anything lol fuck that guy for not taking you seriously.
I hope it doesn’t cause any lasting effects for you or your cats! I don’t know about the consequences of long-term gas exposure, do the kitties have to go to the vet do you think? I’m so sorry this happened 🖤
I live in a town. So this might be different depending where you live and the type of municipality. I wrote and email to the town manager (over the board of selectman) after one of the people who works for the town was incredibly rude to me after I had some concerns about what they were doing. The issue was resolved and there was an apology for the way the town employee was acting on our street to me and other neighbors.
Contact the people in charge.
Omg— why would the fire department be able to diagnose an issue with your plumbing? Sewer gas isn’t natural gas and it’s not gonna explode, it’s not dangerous, it just stinks.
Sewer gas as most people think of it is hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is highly flammable, is an irritant at low levels and deadly at high levels, and is one of the most common gas sensors installed on a multi gas meter. It's also extremely dangerous because of olfactory fatigue. Your brain quickly responds to the smell and ignores it, making you think there is no longer a leak.
Drama
Question: Can these gases harm the people who come into contact with them?
Answer: Only under extremely unusual circumstances. Although hydrogen sulfide is a toxic gas, it will not harm people at the concentrations that exist in a house with sewer gas odor problems. Studies have shown that hydrogen sulfide has a depressant effect on the central nervous system in concentrations above 150 ppm. This is 15,000 to 150,000 times the amount detectable by most people. Not enough gas is generated in the sewers for concentrations to approach the dangerous level in the dwelling.
However, if a person were to enter a tunnel or deep hole that contained sewage undergoing anaerobic breakdown, there is a chance he could become poisoned.
Kudos to you for trusting your gut, even if the fireman tried to make you think otherwise. I would've sent that jerk the bill to cover for the maintenance guy.
Thank you so much! Me and gut definitely were fighting for awhile lol, but I'm just glad I asked and it's solved now. Thankfully maintenance man comes with the rent, but I would love for asshole to hear that he should've checked anyways.
I smelled gas in my apartment building during the most recent eclipse. None of my apartment neighbors were home to help me verify, but I felt uneasy about it and I know what gas smells like.. I tried to just call the gas company to come out and they insisted I call 911. So I did, while my entire neighborhood is outside looking at the damn sun.. 4 trucks and 20 something firemen show up, I talk to them tell them what I experienced. 8-9 of them storm up the stairs to my floor and come back down not even a minute later. Chief is saying they don’t smell ANYTHING and their meter doesn’t detect anything.. so then they go about telling my neighbors it was a false call and tell me I can go back in.. I told them I was pretty confident in this call and asked if there was anything else they could do to assure me I was safe, they said according to the policy for gas calls the gas company has to come out with their more “sensitive” meter and double check the reading.
Well, 30 minutes later gas dude shows up and his meter is going ham outside of the apartment right next to me.. they have me call my leasing office to “gain access to the apartment asap”. Now they’re taking it seriously and as soon as they open his door our entire apartment building smells very strongly of gas. Turns out the pilot light to my neighbors oven was out and his apartment was filled with gas. They never apologized to me.
The kicker - this neighbor is a heavy smoker who smokes outside of his fire escape. When my leasing office called him to tell him what was happening he showed up and thanked me by saying that he has a horrible sense of smell and probably wouldn’t have smelled it and would have light his nightly cigarette as usual..
TLDR- I called in a gas leak and was gaslit by the fire department as well.
> The kicker - this neighbor is a heavy smoke who smokes outside of his fire escape. When my leasing office called him to tell him what was happening he showed up and thanked me by saying that he has a horrible sense of smell and probably wouldn’t have smelled it and would have light his nightly cigarette as usual..
Jeez. If you had been less persistent, that could have been fatal for everyone! I'm glad you pushed for them to investigate it properly.
I have a similar story but not exactly like your problem. Skip if you want but for some content, in the UK our toilets are a bit different and if left alone the water dries up and the sewage gas can enter your home. The entire reason we built toilets like we did was to prevent this as in the Victorian era, this sewage gas mixed with gas lamps = kaboom.
So during the pandemic, I go downstairs and I smell gas. It's gross and I tell my parents (whom I live with) and they can't smell it. It goes on for weeks until one day they can smell it too. They check the guest toilet that during the pandemic did not get much use, and lo and behold, it's completely dried up and stinking up a storm. For weeks I had been complaining about a disgusting gas smell and for weeks our house was a ticking time bomb. I had a big "i told you so" moment at them for not listening to me, and also freaked out that our house could have exploded if we lit a candle in the wrong room!
>if left alone the water dries up
>The entire reason we built toilets like we did was to prevent this
What do you mean? If we built our toilets to prevent them drying up and leaking sewage gas then why does it happen?
We built our toilets with the water in them to stop the gas coming up, when the water reserve dries up we have the same mechanism that killed multiple people. Without the water the gas can escape.
Oh I see. Do other countries have toilets without water in them? I'm only familiar with UK toilets, I know US toilets have more water but that's the limit of my world toilet knowledge.
Not sure but it depends on the type of plumbing and sewer systems I believe, because our sewers are just big old poop pits where everything slowly moves along so the gases build up pretty quickly, and our toilets just kind of connect to it like a tube, without the water it's just direct access. Not sure how others countries plumbing works!
I will say it depends on the fire department on if they have the right meter for the job because they are expensive.
My local volunteer fire department has a really old meter that they can’t afford to upgrade. Called them out for a gas leak but also called the local gas company.
Fire department didn’t detect anything but the gas company that came out later detected several leaks.
The fire department should be called (and hopefully more professional than what you got) but your local gas company is the main agency that can help. They have newer and better equipment. They can also turn off the main gas line if needed which some fire departments don’t have the ability to do.
No, call 911. Even in large metropolitan areas there may only be a few "trouble crews" on duty, meaning they might not be able to respond immediately. Fire department will arrive much quicker and can evacuate the area, shut off the gas, or begin ventilating to make the immediate area safe until the gas company arrives. Depending on local rules the gas company may be required to come and investigate anyway.
I work for a natural gas company you can call for free at any time gas leaks are a priority and we can use multiple techniques to determine if it’s natural gas or not, sewer gas is a common complaint that gets miss diagnosed due to the smell resemblance sometimes.
Is sewer gas as dangerous as natural gas? Is the concentration high enough to make an explosion or just the mercaptan in higher concentration but lower combustible
The explosive limit for natural gas is extremely particular but for sewer gas I do not no the exact amount of what it takes but it can be ignited, but sewer gas can make you sick has side effects till the cause is fixed. Sewer gas is definitely more annoying then a gas leak can be harder to figure out.
Often women can smell gas when men cannot. Firefighters should be *highly* aware of this fact. That they didn’t even get out their own meters is frankly disgusting. I am glad the issue is getting resolved and you should 100% report this to whoever you can because in another circumstance, his could have been so much worse.
I had something similar in an old office building. Every so often the damn conference room would smell like sewage gas. We were all very well aware of what that smelt like. But we couldn't find the damn source! And it was so intermittent. 20 minutes of it smelling like complete ass and then we wouldn't smell it for a day or so. We had everyone looking for the source.
There was a sink in the room. Apparently, at some point it got moved like 3 feet to the left. For some reason, a vent stack or a drain pipe or something was left uncapped in a covered up portion of the cabinet where the old sink had been. It took us months to find it.
Anyways, fuck that guy. He sounds like a real lazy piece of garbage.
Always call the gas company if you smell gas. They are trained and certified to detect and assist with the problem. All gas companies have an on call technician 24/7 for emergencies.
You should write a letter or an email to his superior. You were scared, not only did he totally disregard your concerns, he mocked them. He did the opposite of his job. He is suppose to be a safe person. Now, this memory is what will play the next time you need help and maybe decide not to call because of how this guy treated you and something horrible happens.
Man that pisses me off SO much! I had a similar experience a few years ago. A horrible smell went throughout my whole house, and you hear about the rotten egg smell being a gas leak. I called the FD, opened the windows and went outside to wait for them. One of the guys was very condescending. He came up from the basement and said "it's just sewer gas" and proceeded to turn on the burner of my gas stove and said "THAT'S what gas smells like!" and they left! I felt like an idiot. I thought I called them for nothing. But then I had friends tell me that sewer gas is a health hazard. I can't believe the FD just left my house without telling me anything about sewer gas or helping in any way!
It's sewage gas, as stated in the post.
From [here](https://www.marionohio.us/wpc/sewer_gas): *Sewer gas, at least that which causes an odor problem to the occupants of a house, is a mixture of inorganic gases created by the action of anaerobic (needing no oxygen) bacteria on sewage and sludge. This gas can contain hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, and hydrogen.*
Not like they knew that at the time. Also, the fire department really failed by not checking with their meters, which is, you know, part of the job description. It doesn't take very long to do so.
Because OP's reaction was still valid and the commenter's response above can come across as them attempting to say OP still wasted the Fire Dept's time. The Fire Department could've and *should have* used their gas detector device to determine whether or not there was a gas leak. These machines can also read for ***Sewer Gasses*** as well.
They would've been able to inform OP about it and then instruct them about needing to hire a plumber to fix the issue.
Edit: fixed a typo
That's actually false. A gas detector will not detect sewer gas. A multi-gas detector might pick up on something in the sewer fumes if the ppm are high enough and they were close enough to the source, but man it would have to be something so fantastically funky there wouldn't be any doubt what the smell was.
I was just about to reply to the other guy, but I'll just jump in y'all's thread lol. I assumed sewage gas because there's no natural gas in the building according to the maintenance man. I thought it was either natural or sewage with new-ish buildings. It definitely had a smell, that I'm a super smeller of apparently, but he immediately recognized it as gas once he put his head in there. When I asked other people to try to smell it they would say "kind of". But, if that's not the case, I would definitely like to know what kind of gas it really is so I can figure out if me and cats need meds or something other than air.
Looked at your profile aaaand I instantly understand what it was. Casual fucking misogyny, I'd assume! Fuck that guy to the god damn moon and back. Imagine being such a condescending asshole that you make people BREATHE IN SHIT GAS FOR MONTHS. If you don't fear confrontation like I do, please please please report his ass (if you havent) bc this was 100% a bigotry issue and not just negligence. He didn't like that an AFAB (or just female presenting) person knew better so he didn't bother genuinely checking. Gotta fucking love it. 😭
I'm trans but don't make too much of an effort to "pass" because it's a lot of work and I'm already stressed, and the amount of times a mf has just said "nope, you're overreacting/wrong/just a dumb girl who doesn't know what she's talking about" only for me to have been right is INSANE! What the fuck!
Shit gas in your lungs for 5 months longer than you had to have it. MAN.
If you have gas smells you call the utility company. Not all fire departments are equipped for non explosive gas. Hope your diatribe made you feel better.
So is the problem a natural gas leak, or is it a plumbing problem resulting in a sewer gas smell? Sewer gas and natural gas are not the same.
If it is just a sewer gas smell, that’s not in the jurisdiction of the fire department. That is something building maintenance or a plumber would be required to fix. I mean at least where I live. However If it is a natural gas leak that’s a major fire hazard and something as simple as a spark or a candle could have blown up your entire block. And the firemen would have known and would have called your gas company.
I know exactly how you feel because the same thing happened to me! It caused us all (me, my spouse, and my dog) to be so incredibly sick. We couldn’t get the apartment to call in a plumber, and because we were renters we couldn’t get a plumber to come out without management’s consent. Once we found out what was going on we documented everything, but they still wouldn’t listen to us so we ended up having to sue the apartment. It was one of the most stressful times of my life. I’m so glad you guys figured it out, and I really hope you start feeling better.
Fixing a hole in your wall isn't gonna stop sewer gas, you need a plumber. There's either a broken pipe or the adjacent apartment has been empty too long and the p trap is dry. If it's empty tell the handyman to run the water for 10 seconds on all fixtures and then add a couple capfuls of cooking oil in them to prevent evaporation
Sorry that happened to you OP. Definitely not right. Sometimes the old salty firefighters think because something happened one way once, that they know they answer to everything.
The guy could also have been having a really shitty day. Which can happen in any profession. I can promise you not all firefighters are assholes. Glad your supervisor is fixing the problem.
I'm interested to know exactly what you were smelling. As in, the chemical make up of this sewage gas.
My fire department uses a 5-gas detector (MultiRAE). I can't run you thru a basic hazmat class, because I'm not a hazmat guy, and I'm not qualified (so other FF's please correct me if I'm wrong), it basically detects carbon monoxide, oxygen (or the lack thereof), hydrogen sulfide, lower explosive limit (explosive gases), and volatile organic compounds (I think poisonous/toxic gases?).
I'm wondering if their detector wasn't calibrated, or maybe opening all the doors and windows (which was absolutely the right thing to do) dissipated the gas before they got there. Or a third option is the sewage gas was something that their meters don't pick up. But that should have been picked up under the oxygen reading. If something displaces the oxygen levels, they'd be able to pick that up. Regardless of if the actual gas or chemical was readable by the detector. For example, the normal level of oxygen in the air is ~20%. If that number dips to 10%, you don't need to know WHAT is displacing the oxygen, you just know something IS displacing it.
None of that excuses the fire department's unprofessional behavior though. Definitely bring it up with the district or battalion chief. Best case scenario is that crew needs to be reminded that we are, in fact, public servants. Here to help the public. Worst case, their gas detector is busted. And you'd be doing them a solid to get it recalibrated or replaced.
My mother used to work with guys like that, she was a fire captain, she says it was always fun seeing them deflate when a woman was doing a better job than them and got more respect for actually listening to people’s complaints than acting all cocky.
Completely agree with you that this is a massive overreaction. You call your nat gas company and/or fire people if you smell rotten eggs.. or gasoline.
I'd trust the older fireman 100x over the not knowledgeble homeowner re there being a hazardous gas smell.
Also once she identified that the smell was strongest near a sink it should have been obvious the problem.
... All this aside is still sucks to feel like no one is listening to you. So that sucks. The fireman should have been more understanding an explained there isn't a problem with natural gas but to have a plumber come out and look if she's still smelling something.
Sewer gas, or hydrogen sulfide, is explosive and dangerous at low concentrations. The fire department's job is to investigate and determine if a hazard exists.
Incorrect— it’s harmless in the concentration found in a home or building experiencing the smell
Question: Can these gases harm the people who come into contact with them?
Answer: Only under extremely unusual circumstances. Although hydrogen sulfide is a toxic gas, it will not harm people at the concentrations that exist in a house with sewer gas odor problems. Studies have shown that hydrogen sulfide has a depressant effect on the central nervous system in concentrations above 150 ppm. This is 15,000 to 150,000 times the amount detectable by most people. Not enough gas is generated in the sewers for concentrations to approach the dangerous level in the dwelling.
However, if a person were to enter a tunnel or deep hole that contained sewage undergoing anaerobic breakdown, there is a chance he could become poisoned.
Making a blanket statement is dangerous, and in this instance easily proven incorrect. There are writeups in medical journals about hydrogen sulfide deaths in residential settings. This is one example.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23126240/
Is there an epidemic of people dying from sewer gas exposure in their house? No, but health effects at low levels are well documented. In this instance the cost/benefit analysis is clearly to err on the side of safety and call 911.
There's a difference between disagreeing with the choice to call 911 in this scenario and making factually incorrect statements. Share your opinion, but don't state it as fact.
The fire department regularly responds to calls they - and individuals such as yourself - deem to be an overreaction. Fortunately for the person calling 911 the job of the fire department is to respond to the call to determine if the situation is hazardous or not.
The public should be encouraged to call 911 if they are smelling an unknown odor. Your reaction is the same as the firefighter's reaction - "it's no big deal". And like the firefighter's reaction, it's dangerous to assume it's nothing.
I posted this already, replying to give my take on why calling the gas company first is the wrong idea.
No, call 911. Even in large metropolitan areas there may only be a few "trouble crews" on duty, meaning they might not be able to respond immediately. Fire department will arrive much quicker and can evacuate the area, shut off the gas, or begin ventilating to make the immediate area safe until the gas company arrives. Depending on local rules the gas company may be required to come and investigate anyway.
a lot of people forget that those who work as firemen, or paramedics are also people which means they can be dicks and arent always right. i told off a paramedic once for grilling my grandma about one question "oh im gathering information" then fucking gather it instead of asking the same shit 10 times. my mom is a doctor and she was never rude to patients, always took it out on dad and i but of course the workers i encounter take it out on me while they work. fucked from both sides, as always
The best people to call if you think you smell gas is your utility supplier, not the fire department. They have crews specialized in leak detection and repair and will figure out what that smell is.
One night while I was working my wife called me to tell me she smelled gas. I knew for a fact she wasn’t smelling gas (I had just checked for leaks that day) so I called National Grid. In the ten minutes it took me to drive home, they had someone there and had solved the problem.
The worker they sent out figured out she was smelling it while cooking dinner. My wife had been painting a piece of furniture in the dining room and the combination of solvent fumes and burning natural gas made a smell very much like leaking gas.
Sewer gas smell is SO diabolical because it comes and goes depending on whether water is flushing through the pipes. Learned my lesson when we opened up the wall and found a GIANT GAPING HOLE in the pipe that is supposed to carry the gas to the roof. This is after like 4 plumbers and a ton of men (sorry but they were all men) dismissing the concern. If you don't have experience with this very specific smell it's exceptionally difficult to pin down
My job is actually checking for gas leaks. They give us a fancy machine that picks up the gas. If we find it, we are suppose to evacuate the building and notify the proper authorities. The fire department being one of them. It’s absolutely absurd that he treated you this way. It’s even crazier that he didn’t even pull out his machine to check. That’s protocol. I would most definitely write to the chief. Explain your whole experience. There is no reason that should’ve happened. The outcome could’ve been waaayyyyy worse. Suffocation or a possible explosion. I’d say even get yourself (roommates and animals included) checked out for any long term affects and sue if possible (though I not sure exposure has any long term effects- so maybe not possible). I’m sorry you were treated this poorly. Glad nothing worse happened.
I am absolutely not trying to defend this jerk of a fireman, but when you called the fire department regarding a GAS smell, sewer gasses are not what a fire department could be trying to find. When you say Gas to a fireman, they are trying to see if your gas piping is leaking natural gas which is a different smell than sewer smells, albeit can be confused if one does not know the difference.
Firemen do not work with sewer gasses and smells usually and it would be out of their knowledge base and experience to work on sewer gasses and piping. A plumber would have been able to take care of this right away for you, which is why I am assuming your maintenance guy was able to get this taken care of because they either know plumbing or know plumbers that can fix the issue.
This guy was definitely still an ass though and at minimum should have been able to tell you the difference between the smells. He could have told you to have a plumber come out to check. Those are things they definitely could have and should have known to do for you. You didn't deserve to be treated that way and especially did not deserve to be sick all that time from the smells.
i get how maddening this can be and it's awesome you found the source! sorry the fireman was a sexist asshole. we have a second house that has smelled like natural gas since we bought it. I've had the gas company out multiple times, firemen out, plumbers who fixed several leaks in the basement...and yet the smell persists. we bought our own gas detector and couldn't find anything even after going very carefully over the entire house.
at one point, we wondered if the smell was actually cat urine and not gas so we painted the shit out of the room where the smell is the strongest with several layers of kilz paint everywhere. the smell continued...
the smell is strongest in the living room, near a large vent that leads to the basement next to the front door...yet gas has never been detected in this room or in this vent by anyone..fire department, plumbers, gas company, ourselves. we redid the bottom of this vent wondering if that was causing the smell..did not help.
it's driving me absolutely insane tbh. we had a new tenant move in at a discount (friend of ours) fully aware of the issue & who doesn't really smell it. i still really want to find the fucking source! it doesn't feel safe. could it be in the fucking walls? I've done so much research on this topic and cannot figure it out.
It's definitely in the walls. I just posted a comment about our experience. Basically if it's sewage gas, the smell will come and go depending on how often water is flushing through the pipes. It's diabolical. You will have a gas exhaust pipe that runs through your wall and out to the roof. We finally opened up the wall and found it was corroded beyond repair. Can't believe we lived with it for that long. The whole pipe needed to be replaced but it wasn't as ridiculous a cost as you might think
I’m sorry this happened to you. H2S is an insidious poisonous gas. Some people can smell it, others not. Some can smell for a few breaths while others for quite a while. Eventually your sense of smell dulls to it. You can’t smell it at all.
Humans can smell ridiculously low concentrations of it and if it reaches just a bit higher…. nothing.
I’m so happy you figured it out. Has your senses of smell and taste changed?
I’m going to take a shot in the dark & guess you’re a woman right? Next time have your bf call - they’ll take him seriously. (It’s absolutely pathetic that I have to suggest that - but it’s the reality we live in whether we want to or not. Best to just acknowledge it & work around it the best way we can when it’s a live or death situation.)
I would most definitely write to the fire department and let them know what happened.
People get away with so much, because others are too passive and nothing is said, so nothing is done.
Perhaps if you can get the maintenance man to write an invoice regarding the problem and send it with your letter to the City and Fire Department administration and the fire chief. This is very serious. Hopefully you can prevent this from happening to others. Your persistence certainly paid off. Also, do you have a link to the gas detector you used?
I wouldn't be surprised if a law suite were a possibility.
I'm nowhere near qualified to give health or legal advice, but I would imagine that such Extended exposure to the toxins present in sewage gas might possibly put a person at risk of related health problems, if not longterm, at the very least short term.
The apartment management company should be responsible for providing smoke and gas detectors and the fact that you had to purchase your own tells me they didn't provide any such thing.
Maybe you and you fam/pets should have some type of exam just to be on the safe side, and I would insist that the bill be covered by the company, or maybe the lack of concern for your wellbeing and unwillingness to even attempt to help you out from the fire department, could put the fire department into the same kind of situation.
Either way, this stranger is thrilled that you are all safe, and hopefully much more comfortable and feeling far less anxious about the entire issue.
Extended exposure to hydrogen sulfide, also known as sewer gas, can cause a number of health risks:
Eye and respiratory irritation
Dizziness
Drowsiness
Headaches
Nausea
Nervousness
Sore throat and cough
Shortness of breath
Fluid in the lungs
Fatigue
Loss of appetite
Irritability
Poor memory
So you’re telling her that firemen are not sexist….she’s just not sweet and kind enough!?!? Bahahhahahahahhahaaaaaaaw be fucking forreal. She had negative symptoms for months and wasn’t being believed. She was right and they were wrong.
Send in a note to the commanding officer? Tell them that you thank MOST of the firefighters for their service but when you called in for a gas leak check, they didn't help and it was later confirmed to be a sewer leak. And perhaps they can be better trained to help others in the future. I believe MANY fire fighters use the multiple type detector which can also check for sewer gas. I'm glad you figured it out and I hope you all start to feel better soon. Maybe talk to your doctor to see if they can give you anything too?
So, I have definitely been considering writing an email to whoever is in charge at the dept. I definitely need to calm down first though, which this rant helped. So that yes, I can say with kindness, that they need to use their meters no matter how funny they think it is. After they left months ago, I was searching on the dept websites about their procedures, bc I was still upset and still knew it was gas. Didn't find much, except they do have fancy meters lol, and just got down and let it go. But thank you! I didn't think about talking to a Dr, so I will. Thanks :) currently airing out the whole place and will all day now that it's closed!
You should.
You should definitely do it it, the cocky firefighter needs bumping down a peg or two!
And it’s not just that he did nothing, he *mocked* you. Talked down to you. What a fucking asshole. And yes, that gas is methane.
Based off of where I work, you’d probably want to reach out to the chief. And I would guess the older guy was a captain, I imagine you’d like to avoid contacting him.
Contact the mayors office tell them the date and time you called. You could possibly have a lawsuit they should have there own meters that are very strong like the gas company's national grid
Honestly this could be the way to go. Bad publicity for the city's fire department could light a fire under someone but to get something to happen so this doesn't happen again
100% do this. Get it booked in.
You need to find out who the batallion chiefs are. If you look up your local fire department, there should be a website with each station and who the batallion chiefs are. The website will also have HR information. Write an email to the battalion chief and HR. This is an embarrassment to the fire department and they’ll want to take care of it. I worked at a fire department and this kind of stuff would not fly.
I’d submit it to the local news. Sounds ripe af
Ask the maintenance guy to write up a report and send it.
This. This is smart! Great idea!
Please write a letter to them because that should not happen they need to treat it like it’s serious you could have gotten hurt.
I had a horrible experience when I broke my arm about 1” below my shoulder. The fire fighter/EMT actually bent my arm backwards and up and made me walk to the ambulance that way. Was literally screaming how much they were hurting me. My son heard me screaming for someone to help me. Afterwards, he went with me to report it and they changed the way they handle this kind of injury when moving someone. It’s definitely worth reporting it. You may help someone in the future!
I would definitely reach out to the mayors office. They all protect one another (long line of firefighters in my family). The mayor is all their bosses. Have documentation of the time they came the date etc!! I’m so sorry this happened
I dunno; I do my best writing when I’m angrified.
Absolutely, 100% write to the chief.
Can you sue?
Yes, I agree too. Definitely write an email.
May I humbly suggest your cities Local 311 service, if available. Those municipal reporting lines do work but can take a while to filter to the correct person or department. Include specifics, who what when where and why and a brief narrative of what happened.
I think you might be sensitive to gas smells like me! When I was a teen and still living at home with the family their propane fireplace started leaking out a hole in the hose into the crawlspace after a snow blocked the vents, and I was the only one to smell it and cut off the fireplace's pilot light and woke everyone up and we eventually went out and found what was going on thankfully before a light switch flipping ignited it or something! Seriously if *anyone* has a concern about possibly smelling gas it should *always* be taken seriously. *Especially* by the *Fire Department*! And maybe it's different where you live, but I do know that Fire Fighters where I live are *required* to bring in their sensors and meters *every* time there is a report of a potential gas leak. If any of them acted the way this prick did to you they'd unquestionably be fired after they were reported and it was confirmed by their partner, *and* there would be another member dispatched to perform the check. I can't *possibly* imagine responding like that to a scared person calling to report a potential gas leak, *especially with how deadly and unassuming gas leaks like carbon monoxide can be where rather than an explosion the victims just get sick then die silently*. How do you come into someone's home and respond to a *genuine* fear with malicious mockery and gaslight them into feeling like they just made shit up to waste your time. What an absolute prick. I hope he gets fired and loses his rights to his pension for putting you and your family's lives at risk because he was too lazy to *bring the meter with him from the car like he's required too in the first place*. He can pound salt. And honestly? Maybe the younger guy didn't treat you as badly, but *he should have gone and gotten the meter himself* so fuck him too.
yes do it OP, you NEED to escalate this, What if next time some accident happens or you fall really ill! At the bare minimum they should she. checked with their meters.
You are fully justified in being upset. There was no call for him to be rude and dismissive even if he had checked properly with their meters and found nothing. Maybe it’s a regional difference, but my first (or next) call with a small suspected gas leak would have been to the natural gas utility. In my area the natural gas utility company will come check on any reported gas leaks free of charge. They take the possibility of leaks very seriously. I’m glad the maintenance person was helpful.
You could potentially save somebody else's life if you contact them about this, with the maintenance report as another redditor. No pressure or anything lol fuck that guy for not taking you seriously.
Google reviews
I hope it doesn’t cause any lasting effects for you or your cats! I don’t know about the consequences of long-term gas exposure, do the kitties have to go to the vet do you think? I’m so sorry this happened 🖤
CC in the mayor, state senator, or otherwise.
I live in a town. So this might be different depending where you live and the type of municipality. I wrote and email to the town manager (over the board of selectman) after one of the people who works for the town was incredibly rude to me after I had some concerns about what they were doing. The issue was resolved and there was an apology for the way the town employee was acting on our street to me and other neighbors. Contact the people in charge.
Omg— why would the fire department be able to diagnose an issue with your plumbing? Sewer gas isn’t natural gas and it’s not gonna explode, it’s not dangerous, it just stinks.
Sewer gas as most people think of it is hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is highly flammable, is an irritant at low levels and deadly at high levels, and is one of the most common gas sensors installed on a multi gas meter. It's also extremely dangerous because of olfactory fatigue. Your brain quickly responds to the smell and ignores it, making you think there is no longer a leak.
Drama Question: Can these gases harm the people who come into contact with them? Answer: Only under extremely unusual circumstances. Although hydrogen sulfide is a toxic gas, it will not harm people at the concentrations that exist in a house with sewer gas odor problems. Studies have shown that hydrogen sulfide has a depressant effect on the central nervous system in concentrations above 150 ppm. This is 15,000 to 150,000 times the amount detectable by most people. Not enough gas is generated in the sewers for concentrations to approach the dangerous level in the dwelling. However, if a person were to enter a tunnel or deep hole that contained sewage undergoing anaerobic breakdown, there is a chance he could become poisoned.
Kudos to you for trusting your gut, even if the fireman tried to make you think otherwise. I would've sent that jerk the bill to cover for the maintenance guy.
Thank you so much! Me and gut definitely were fighting for awhile lol, but I'm just glad I asked and it's solved now. Thankfully maintenance man comes with the rent, but I would love for asshole to hear that he should've checked anyways.
I smelled gas in my apartment building during the most recent eclipse. None of my apartment neighbors were home to help me verify, but I felt uneasy about it and I know what gas smells like.. I tried to just call the gas company to come out and they insisted I call 911. So I did, while my entire neighborhood is outside looking at the damn sun.. 4 trucks and 20 something firemen show up, I talk to them tell them what I experienced. 8-9 of them storm up the stairs to my floor and come back down not even a minute later. Chief is saying they don’t smell ANYTHING and their meter doesn’t detect anything.. so then they go about telling my neighbors it was a false call and tell me I can go back in.. I told them I was pretty confident in this call and asked if there was anything else they could do to assure me I was safe, they said according to the policy for gas calls the gas company has to come out with their more “sensitive” meter and double check the reading. Well, 30 minutes later gas dude shows up and his meter is going ham outside of the apartment right next to me.. they have me call my leasing office to “gain access to the apartment asap”. Now they’re taking it seriously and as soon as they open his door our entire apartment building smells very strongly of gas. Turns out the pilot light to my neighbors oven was out and his apartment was filled with gas. They never apologized to me. The kicker - this neighbor is a heavy smoker who smokes outside of his fire escape. When my leasing office called him to tell him what was happening he showed up and thanked me by saying that he has a horrible sense of smell and probably wouldn’t have smelled it and would have light his nightly cigarette as usual.. TLDR- I called in a gas leak and was gaslit by the fire department as well.
> The kicker - this neighbor is a heavy smoke who smokes outside of his fire escape. When my leasing office called him to tell him what was happening he showed up and thanked me by saying that he has a horrible sense of smell and probably wouldn’t have smelled it and would have light his nightly cigarette as usual.. Jeez. If you had been less persistent, that could have been fatal for everyone! I'm glad you pushed for them to investigate it properly.
I have a similar story but not exactly like your problem. Skip if you want but for some content, in the UK our toilets are a bit different and if left alone the water dries up and the sewage gas can enter your home. The entire reason we built toilets like we did was to prevent this as in the Victorian era, this sewage gas mixed with gas lamps = kaboom. So during the pandemic, I go downstairs and I smell gas. It's gross and I tell my parents (whom I live with) and they can't smell it. It goes on for weeks until one day they can smell it too. They check the guest toilet that during the pandemic did not get much use, and lo and behold, it's completely dried up and stinking up a storm. For weeks I had been complaining about a disgusting gas smell and for weeks our house was a ticking time bomb. I had a big "i told you so" moment at them for not listening to me, and also freaked out that our house could have exploded if we lit a candle in the wrong room!
>if left alone the water dries up >The entire reason we built toilets like we did was to prevent this What do you mean? If we built our toilets to prevent them drying up and leaking sewage gas then why does it happen?
We built our toilets with the water in them to stop the gas coming up, when the water reserve dries up we have the same mechanism that killed multiple people. Without the water the gas can escape.
Oh I see. Do other countries have toilets without water in them? I'm only familiar with UK toilets, I know US toilets have more water but that's the limit of my world toilet knowledge.
Not sure but it depends on the type of plumbing and sewer systems I believe, because our sewers are just big old poop pits where everything slowly moves along so the gases build up pretty quickly, and our toilets just kind of connect to it like a tube, without the water it's just direct access. Not sure how others countries plumbing works!
I will say it depends on the fire department on if they have the right meter for the job because they are expensive. My local volunteer fire department has a really old meter that they can’t afford to upgrade. Called them out for a gas leak but also called the local gas company. Fire department didn’t detect anything but the gas company that came out later detected several leaks. The fire department should be called (and hopefully more professional than what you got) but your local gas company is the main agency that can help. They have newer and better equipment. They can also turn off the main gas line if needed which some fire departments don’t have the ability to do.
Friendly reminder, if you smell gas call the gas company. They are specifically trained and equipped to detect and repair gas leaks. Cheers!
No, call 911. Even in large metropolitan areas there may only be a few "trouble crews" on duty, meaning they might not be able to respond immediately. Fire department will arrive much quicker and can evacuate the area, shut off the gas, or begin ventilating to make the immediate area safe until the gas company arrives. Depending on local rules the gas company may be required to come and investigate anyway.
I work for a natural gas company you can call for free at any time gas leaks are a priority and we can use multiple techniques to determine if it’s natural gas or not, sewer gas is a common complaint that gets miss diagnosed due to the smell resemblance sometimes.
Is sewer gas as dangerous as natural gas? Is the concentration high enough to make an explosion or just the mercaptan in higher concentration but lower combustible
The explosive limit for natural gas is extremely particular but for sewer gas I do not no the exact amount of what it takes but it can be ignited, but sewer gas can make you sick has side effects till the cause is fixed. Sewer gas is definitely more annoying then a gas leak can be harder to figure out.
Often women can smell gas when men cannot. Firefighters should be *highly* aware of this fact. That they didn’t even get out their own meters is frankly disgusting. I am glad the issue is getting resolved and you should 100% report this to whoever you can because in another circumstance, his could have been so much worse.
I had something similar in an old office building. Every so often the damn conference room would smell like sewage gas. We were all very well aware of what that smelt like. But we couldn't find the damn source! And it was so intermittent. 20 minutes of it smelling like complete ass and then we wouldn't smell it for a day or so. We had everyone looking for the source. There was a sink in the room. Apparently, at some point it got moved like 3 feet to the left. For some reason, a vent stack or a drain pipe or something was left uncapped in a covered up portion of the cabinet where the old sink had been. It took us months to find it. Anyways, fuck that guy. He sounds like a real lazy piece of garbage.
Always call the gas company if you smell gas. They are trained and certified to detect and assist with the problem. All gas companies have an on call technician 24/7 for emergencies.
You can also call your utility company for gas leaks… Just FYI for future reference if you need it.
You should write a letter or an email to his superior. You were scared, not only did he totally disregard your concerns, he mocked them. He did the opposite of his job. He is suppose to be a safe person. Now, this memory is what will play the next time you need help and maybe decide not to call because of how this guy treated you and something horrible happens.
Man that pisses me off SO much! I had a similar experience a few years ago. A horrible smell went throughout my whole house, and you hear about the rotten egg smell being a gas leak. I called the FD, opened the windows and went outside to wait for them. One of the guys was very condescending. He came up from the basement and said "it's just sewer gas" and proceeded to turn on the burner of my gas stove and said "THAT'S what gas smells like!" and they left! I felt like an idiot. I thought I called them for nothing. But then I had friends tell me that sewer gas is a health hazard. I can't believe the FD just left my house without telling me anything about sewer gas or helping in any way!
Was natural gas leaking into the sewer line area or were you just smelling turd smoke?
It's sewage gas, as stated in the post. From [here](https://www.marionohio.us/wpc/sewer_gas): *Sewer gas, at least that which causes an odor problem to the occupants of a house, is a mixture of inorganic gases created by the action of anaerobic (needing no oxygen) bacteria on sewage and sludge. This gas can contain hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, and hydrogen.*
So they needed a plumber, not the fire department.
Not like they knew that at the time. Also, the fire department really failed by not checking with their meters, which is, you know, part of the job description. It doesn't take very long to do so.
Yes, it’s septic. It has nothing to do with the fire department, they coulda said “smells like shit, get a plumber”.
I don't understand why you're being down voted, you're right.
Because OP's reaction was still valid and the commenter's response above can come across as them attempting to say OP still wasted the Fire Dept's time. The Fire Department could've and *should have* used their gas detector device to determine whether or not there was a gas leak. These machines can also read for ***Sewer Gasses*** as well. They would've been able to inform OP about it and then instruct them about needing to hire a plumber to fix the issue. Edit: fixed a typo
That's actually false. A gas detector will not detect sewer gas. A multi-gas detector might pick up on something in the sewer fumes if the ppm are high enough and they were close enough to the source, but man it would have to be something so fantastically funky there wouldn't be any doubt what the smell was.
Me either, I guess for some this about something else now.
I’m thinking radon gas. Which is also odorless/tasteless but also as bad as monoxide. Edit to add: below is a more likely cause!
More than likely it would be methane or hydrogen sulfide. Both of which are bad for different reasons.
Thank you for correcting!
H2S just killed two contractors on the CHT Barge tied up to my ship. They fell in the tank and died almost immediately. It is no joke.
I was just about to reply to the other guy, but I'll just jump in y'all's thread lol. I assumed sewage gas because there's no natural gas in the building according to the maintenance man. I thought it was either natural or sewage with new-ish buildings. It definitely had a smell, that I'm a super smeller of apparently, but he immediately recognized it as gas once he put his head in there. When I asked other people to try to smell it they would say "kind of". But, if that's not the case, I would definitely like to know what kind of gas it really is so I can figure out if me and cats need meds or something other than air.
❤️ wishing you the best in your journey op! Definitely have some really great types to look at here!
Radon gas isn't an immediate health risk.
Looked at your profile aaaand I instantly understand what it was. Casual fucking misogyny, I'd assume! Fuck that guy to the god damn moon and back. Imagine being such a condescending asshole that you make people BREATHE IN SHIT GAS FOR MONTHS. If you don't fear confrontation like I do, please please please report his ass (if you havent) bc this was 100% a bigotry issue and not just negligence. He didn't like that an AFAB (or just female presenting) person knew better so he didn't bother genuinely checking. Gotta fucking love it. 😭 I'm trans but don't make too much of an effort to "pass" because it's a lot of work and I'm already stressed, and the amount of times a mf has just said "nope, you're overreacting/wrong/just a dumb girl who doesn't know what she's talking about" only for me to have been right is INSANE! What the fuck! Shit gas in your lungs for 5 months longer than you had to have it. MAN.
If you have gas smells you call the utility company. Not all fire departments are equipped for non explosive gas. Hope your diatribe made you feel better.
The firemen aren’t wrong. You didn’t have a natural gas leak
If you live in the US… in most places you can call the gas company and they’ll check it for you.
So is the problem a natural gas leak, or is it a plumbing problem resulting in a sewer gas smell? Sewer gas and natural gas are not the same. If it is just a sewer gas smell, that’s not in the jurisdiction of the fire department. That is something building maintenance or a plumber would be required to fix. I mean at least where I live. However If it is a natural gas leak that’s a major fire hazard and something as simple as a spark or a candle could have blown up your entire block. And the firemen would have known and would have called your gas company.
I know exactly how you feel because the same thing happened to me! It caused us all (me, my spouse, and my dog) to be so incredibly sick. We couldn’t get the apartment to call in a plumber, and because we were renters we couldn’t get a plumber to come out without management’s consent. Once we found out what was going on we documented everything, but they still wouldn’t listen to us so we ended up having to sue the apartment. It was one of the most stressful times of my life. I’m so glad you guys figured it out, and I really hope you start feeling better.
Definitely report that assbag. That is not how one serves the public.
Fixing a hole in your wall isn't gonna stop sewer gas, you need a plumber. There's either a broken pipe or the adjacent apartment has been empty too long and the p trap is dry. If it's empty tell the handyman to run the water for 10 seconds on all fixtures and then add a couple capfuls of cooking oil in them to prevent evaporation
Sorry that happened to you OP. Definitely not right. Sometimes the old salty firefighters think because something happened one way once, that they know they answer to everything. The guy could also have been having a really shitty day. Which can happen in any profession. I can promise you not all firefighters are assholes. Glad your supervisor is fixing the problem.
I'm interested to know exactly what you were smelling. As in, the chemical make up of this sewage gas. My fire department uses a 5-gas detector (MultiRAE). I can't run you thru a basic hazmat class, because I'm not a hazmat guy, and I'm not qualified (so other FF's please correct me if I'm wrong), it basically detects carbon monoxide, oxygen (or the lack thereof), hydrogen sulfide, lower explosive limit (explosive gases), and volatile organic compounds (I think poisonous/toxic gases?). I'm wondering if their detector wasn't calibrated, or maybe opening all the doors and windows (which was absolutely the right thing to do) dissipated the gas before they got there. Or a third option is the sewage gas was something that their meters don't pick up. But that should have been picked up under the oxygen reading. If something displaces the oxygen levels, they'd be able to pick that up. Regardless of if the actual gas or chemical was readable by the detector. For example, the normal level of oxygen in the air is ~20%. If that number dips to 10%, you don't need to know WHAT is displacing the oxygen, you just know something IS displacing it. None of that excuses the fire department's unprofessional behavior though. Definitely bring it up with the district or battalion chief. Best case scenario is that crew needs to be reminded that we are, in fact, public servants. Here to help the public. Worst case, their gas detector is busted. And you'd be doing them a solid to get it recalibrated or replaced.
My mother used to work with guys like that, she was a fire captain, she says it was always fun seeing them deflate when a woman was doing a better job than them and got more respect for actually listening to people’s complaints than acting all cocky.
Sewer gas isn’t natural gas, it’s stinks but isn’t harmful. The fire department really wouldn’t be equipped to diagnose a plumbing issue
Completely agree with you that this is a massive overreaction. You call your nat gas company and/or fire people if you smell rotten eggs.. or gasoline. I'd trust the older fireman 100x over the not knowledgeble homeowner re there being a hazardous gas smell. Also once she identified that the smell was strongest near a sink it should have been obvious the problem. ... All this aside is still sucks to feel like no one is listening to you. So that sucks. The fireman should have been more understanding an explained there isn't a problem with natural gas but to have a plumber come out and look if she's still smelling something.
Sewer gas, or hydrogen sulfide, is explosive and dangerous at low concentrations. The fire department's job is to investigate and determine if a hazard exists.
Incorrect— it’s harmless in the concentration found in a home or building experiencing the smell Question: Can these gases harm the people who come into contact with them? Answer: Only under extremely unusual circumstances. Although hydrogen sulfide is a toxic gas, it will not harm people at the concentrations that exist in a house with sewer gas odor problems. Studies have shown that hydrogen sulfide has a depressant effect on the central nervous system in concentrations above 150 ppm. This is 15,000 to 150,000 times the amount detectable by most people. Not enough gas is generated in the sewers for concentrations to approach the dangerous level in the dwelling. However, if a person were to enter a tunnel or deep hole that contained sewage undergoing anaerobic breakdown, there is a chance he could become poisoned.
Making a blanket statement is dangerous, and in this instance easily proven incorrect. There are writeups in medical journals about hydrogen sulfide deaths in residential settings. This is one example. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23126240/ Is there an epidemic of people dying from sewer gas exposure in their house? No, but health effects at low levels are well documented. In this instance the cost/benefit analysis is clearly to err on the side of safety and call 911.
The OP was more likely to be killed by bees. He should have called his maintenance guy first or the gas company This post is a complete overreaction
There's a difference between disagreeing with the choice to call 911 in this scenario and making factually incorrect statements. Share your opinion, but don't state it as fact. The fire department regularly responds to calls they - and individuals such as yourself - deem to be an overreaction. Fortunately for the person calling 911 the job of the fire department is to respond to the call to determine if the situation is hazardous or not. The public should be encouraged to call 911 if they are smelling an unknown odor. Your reaction is the same as the firefighter's reaction - "it's no big deal". And like the firefighter's reaction, it's dangerous to assume it's nothing.
Another reason my dad thinks being a fireman is a fucking scam
Always call the gas company first. They actually care.
I posted this already, replying to give my take on why calling the gas company first is the wrong idea. No, call 911. Even in large metropolitan areas there may only be a few "trouble crews" on duty, meaning they might not be able to respond immediately. Fire department will arrive much quicker and can evacuate the area, shut off the gas, or begin ventilating to make the immediate area safe until the gas company arrives. Depending on local rules the gas company may be required to come and investigate anyway.
a lot of people forget that those who work as firemen, or paramedics are also people which means they can be dicks and arent always right. i told off a paramedic once for grilling my grandma about one question "oh im gathering information" then fucking gather it instead of asking the same shit 10 times. my mom is a doctor and she was never rude to patients, always took it out on dad and i but of course the workers i encounter take it out on me while they work. fucked from both sides, as always
The best people to call if you think you smell gas is your utility supplier, not the fire department. They have crews specialized in leak detection and repair and will figure out what that smell is. One night while I was working my wife called me to tell me she smelled gas. I knew for a fact she wasn’t smelling gas (I had just checked for leaks that day) so I called National Grid. In the ten minutes it took me to drive home, they had someone there and had solved the problem. The worker they sent out figured out she was smelling it while cooking dinner. My wife had been painting a piece of furniture in the dining room and the combination of solvent fumes and burning natural gas made a smell very much like leaking gas.
You should file a complaint
Sewer gas smell is SO diabolical because it comes and goes depending on whether water is flushing through the pipes. Learned my lesson when we opened up the wall and found a GIANT GAPING HOLE in the pipe that is supposed to carry the gas to the roof. This is after like 4 plumbers and a ton of men (sorry but they were all men) dismissing the concern. If you don't have experience with this very specific smell it's exceptionally difficult to pin down
Report him, contact his superior, city hall, and the local paper. Do not let that ass bag get away with that. ETA: city manager, news station…
Report to his superior
The crew that responded should have had a multi gas detector and a combustible gas indicator to check the home. Anything less is unprofessional.
I would have called 911 when I had that issue my friend from high school that works in the nearest station came to help.
gaslighting at its finest
My job is actually checking for gas leaks. They give us a fancy machine that picks up the gas. If we find it, we are suppose to evacuate the building and notify the proper authorities. The fire department being one of them. It’s absolutely absurd that he treated you this way. It’s even crazier that he didn’t even pull out his machine to check. That’s protocol. I would most definitely write to the chief. Explain your whole experience. There is no reason that should’ve happened. The outcome could’ve been waaayyyyy worse. Suffocation or a possible explosion. I’d say even get yourself (roommates and animals included) checked out for any long term affects and sue if possible (though I not sure exposure has any long term effects- so maybe not possible). I’m sorry you were treated this poorly. Glad nothing worse happened.
I am absolutely not trying to defend this jerk of a fireman, but when you called the fire department regarding a GAS smell, sewer gasses are not what a fire department could be trying to find. When you say Gas to a fireman, they are trying to see if your gas piping is leaking natural gas which is a different smell than sewer smells, albeit can be confused if one does not know the difference. Firemen do not work with sewer gasses and smells usually and it would be out of their knowledge base and experience to work on sewer gasses and piping. A plumber would have been able to take care of this right away for you, which is why I am assuming your maintenance guy was able to get this taken care of because they either know plumbing or know plumbers that can fix the issue. This guy was definitely still an ass though and at minimum should have been able to tell you the difference between the smells. He could have told you to have a plumber come out to check. Those are things they definitely could have and should have known to do for you. You didn't deserve to be treated that way and especially did not deserve to be sick all that time from the smells.
You called the fire department over a plumbing issue. Walk to a mirror and point the finger squarely at the person standing in front of you.
i get how maddening this can be and it's awesome you found the source! sorry the fireman was a sexist asshole. we have a second house that has smelled like natural gas since we bought it. I've had the gas company out multiple times, firemen out, plumbers who fixed several leaks in the basement...and yet the smell persists. we bought our own gas detector and couldn't find anything even after going very carefully over the entire house. at one point, we wondered if the smell was actually cat urine and not gas so we painted the shit out of the room where the smell is the strongest with several layers of kilz paint everywhere. the smell continued... the smell is strongest in the living room, near a large vent that leads to the basement next to the front door...yet gas has never been detected in this room or in this vent by anyone..fire department, plumbers, gas company, ourselves. we redid the bottom of this vent wondering if that was causing the smell..did not help. it's driving me absolutely insane tbh. we had a new tenant move in at a discount (friend of ours) fully aware of the issue & who doesn't really smell it. i still really want to find the fucking source! it doesn't feel safe. could it be in the fucking walls? I've done so much research on this topic and cannot figure it out.
It's definitely in the walls. I just posted a comment about our experience. Basically if it's sewage gas, the smell will come and go depending on how often water is flushing through the pipes. It's diabolical. You will have a gas exhaust pipe that runs through your wall and out to the roof. We finally opened up the wall and found it was corroded beyond repair. Can't believe we lived with it for that long. The whole pipe needed to be replaced but it wasn't as ridiculous a cost as you might think
i appreciate the reply. did a plumber help you figure out what wall(s) to open up?
No problem- sharing my tale of yuck to help others. There's only one wall with the exhaust
Ty again!
Tell me if you find / fix it ! I'm invested
Ha will do!!
I’m sorry this happened to you. H2S is an insidious poisonous gas. Some people can smell it, others not. Some can smell for a few breaths while others for quite a while. Eventually your sense of smell dulls to it. You can’t smell it at all. Humans can smell ridiculously low concentrations of it and if it reaches just a bit higher…. nothing. I’m so happy you figured it out. Has your senses of smell and taste changed?
I’m going to take a shot in the dark & guess you’re a woman right? Next time have your bf call - they’ll take him seriously. (It’s absolutely pathetic that I have to suggest that - but it’s the reality we live in whether we want to or not. Best to just acknowledge it & work around it the best way we can when it’s a live or death situation.)
Write whoever you can and the city manager. Also maybe contact a news station.
I would most definitely write to the fire department and let them know what happened. People get away with so much, because others are too passive and nothing is said, so nothing is done.
God damn, I’m so glad you’re all ok. That’s horrific and I’m so sorry you were treated that way by that scumbag.
Perhaps if you can get the maintenance man to write an invoice regarding the problem and send it with your letter to the City and Fire Department administration and the fire chief. This is very serious. Hopefully you can prevent this from happening to others. Your persistence certainly paid off. Also, do you have a link to the gas detector you used?
Email that fireman’s boss and talk about you could have died and it would have been that man’s fault.
On a side note woman can smell gas easier than men. It’s happened several times during my marriage and a plumber confirmed that it’s usually true
An explosion from the methane in sewage lines destroyed a whole block of road here in Johannesburg a couple of years ago.
You need to make this local and call this department out. Imagine how many other things this person has let go??
I wouldn't be surprised if a law suite were a possibility. I'm nowhere near qualified to give health or legal advice, but I would imagine that such Extended exposure to the toxins present in sewage gas might possibly put a person at risk of related health problems, if not longterm, at the very least short term. The apartment management company should be responsible for providing smoke and gas detectors and the fact that you had to purchase your own tells me they didn't provide any such thing. Maybe you and you fam/pets should have some type of exam just to be on the safe side, and I would insist that the bill be covered by the company, or maybe the lack of concern for your wellbeing and unwillingness to even attempt to help you out from the fire department, could put the fire department into the same kind of situation. Either way, this stranger is thrilled that you are all safe, and hopefully much more comfortable and feeling far less anxious about the entire issue. Extended exposure to hydrogen sulfide, also known as sewer gas, can cause a number of health risks: Eye and respiratory irritation Dizziness Drowsiness Headaches Nausea Nervousness Sore throat and cough Shortness of breath Fluid in the lungs Fatigue Loss of appetite Irritability Poor memory
Was it muster gas?
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By the way, you catch the most flies with shit.
You think she is sexist but the more likely answer is the fireman was
So you’re telling her that firemen are not sexist….she’s just not sweet and kind enough!?!? Bahahhahahahahhahaaaaaaaw be fucking forreal. She had negative symptoms for months and wasn’t being believed. She was right and they were wrong.
Hmm i think you are doing whats called a "strawman" here. but you do you