For years now, some residents in Avondale have been complaining of smelling gas possibly leaking from lines near the intersection of 44th Street and Sixth Avenue South according to Avondale resident Steve Brown.
Brown lives just down the road from the intersection where holes have been drilled by the Alabama Gas Company in an attempt to locate the source of the potential leak, he explained. “I saw an Alagasco truck out there about five weeks ago,” Brown said.
At the intersection, the unmistakable smell of gas hangs heavily in the air. Brown said that as he was walking the previous day he smelled gas near the gate to the ball fields at Avondale Park. “It’s something that can be smelled throughout the neighborhood,” he said.
“I’m very familiar with what happened out at Gate City. That’s happening all over the United States. It’s just a matter of deteriorating infrastructure,” Brown said.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2013, an explosion fueled by a gas leak leveled an apartment building at the Marks Village public housing complex in Gate City. One woman was found dead and seven more people, two adults and five children, were taken to the hospital.
The family of the deceased, 40-year-old Tyrennis Laval Mabry, and 91 other residents of the Marks Village community filed several lawsuits against Alagasco after the explosion.
The National Transportation Safety Board conducted an investigation, which stalled the litigation process. On March 11, 2014, Alagasco asked a Jefferson County Circuit Judge to condense the four separate lawsuits into one class-action lawsuit.
Before the explosion, Gate City residents said, they had complained to Alagasco about the smell of gas more than once. Residents said that they had smelled gas in the area for years. The lawsuit filed by Gate City explosion survivor Darrlye Brown blamed his injuries on Alagasco and the Birmingham Housing Authority, which he contended had failed to “properly inspect, maintain, repair, and/or replace said natural gas lines.”
Despite multiple efforts, Alagasco would not return calls seeking comment for this story and an update on the Gate City litigation.
Avondale’s Steve Brown said that he has been aware of the smell of gas near his home for five years now. “I haven’t called anyone with Alagasco in about six months because I just gave up on them doing anything about it,” Brown said. “I don’t think it’s a matter of if something happens, but when.”
Alagasco’s website contains the following instructions related to what to do if you smell natural gas:
- Leave your home immediately and call 911 or call Alagasco at 1-800-292-4008 from a neighbor’s home. Do this before notifying property management.
- As you exit, to not ignite a flame or turn on or off an electrical device (lights, fixed or mobile phones, etc.).
- Leave the door open as you leave.
- Do not assume someone else has reported the leak.
- Do not return until told it is safe to do so by someone in authority (gas supplier employee, police, fireman, etc.).
The instructions don’t specify what to do if the smell of gas is detectable from several places in a neighborhood.
However, the gas company website also refers, under “other helpful resources,” to the Alabama Public Safety Commission, which includes, among other things, an online complaint form.
For more information, visit alagasco.com/safety—education/if-you-smell-natural-gas-58.html