Our family had a big adventure last night. Here's the story...
After dinner had been cleaned up, the kids were downstairs playing. I was upstairs on the couch reading with the radio and dishwasher on in the background. Jackson came upstairs and asked "What is that noise?" I told him that the dishwasher was running. (He has previously gotten a little nervous from the sounds coming from the washer.) He went back downstairs. A minute later, he came back up. "Mom, it's not the dishwasher. It's a different sound." So I turned down the radio to let him hear the noise. He said he was sure that wasn't it and asked me to come downstairs.
Halfway down the stairs there was a very definite NATURAL GAS smell, so I gathered up the boys and got them upstairs. Tim was in our bedroom and I told him about it. He said to start opening windows to let it air out. As we did this, we heard a strange noise from outside...kind of like the sprinklers were on full blast. At that point, Tim ordered us all out and across the street while he dialed 911.
It was about 7 p.m or so, so it was dark and very COLD. Broder, Tim and I didn't have a coat on; Jackson didn't have a coat OR shoes on. We made our way down the street to our previous Bishop's house. I could see that their lights were on. We knocked and asked them if we might come in for a little and explained what was going on.
Tim checked in a little later and told us that our neighbors on both sides had been evacuated and that there were fire trucks posted at each end of our street so as not to let people in. He said that there were Questar trucks and a backhoe too.
He went back out to check on our house. The Weidauer's were SO good to us. They let us play with their toys and gave us yummy treats. We were over there until
10 p.m.!!!Tim kept coming back and giving us updates. The gas line into our house had ruptured for a reason nobody really knew. The firemen had been able to turn it off, but had to wait for the Questar guys to do the rest. The smell of the gas spread up and down the street. They installed a new meter, checked the soil around the meter for any pockets of gas, and monitored the inside of our house. The gas guy said that 1.000 parts per million was when they evacuate and 70,000 part per million was when the gas would spontaneously combust. The highest levels at our house were 1,200. So although it probably wouldn't burst into flames on it's own, any spark could have been very dangerous.
Which is why I was VERY concerned when Tim said that one of the Questar guys was
SMOKING out on our lawn!!!!!!! Hellloooooooooo?!?!?
Anyway, eventually it was all clear to go home. Although I was still very nervous because I could still smell it. We were assured that the readings were all clear and that we were good. Jackson asked if he could sleep in my bed 'cause he wanted to protect me. Adorable!
Looking back on it all, we are very grateful for many things...
1) That Jackson noticed the weird noise in the first place. He and Broder were playing and watching a movie. It would have been very easy to ignore it.
2) That Jackson insisted that I check out the noise with him.
3) That we were awake. How much trouble if we were all asleep!?!
4) That it was early enough for neighbors to be home and awake.
5) That neighbors were kind enough to let us come in and to take such good care of us.
6) That Tim was home.
7) That we have emergency services to help out.
8) That nothing happened to our next-door neighbors or their houses.
9) That we were all safe and nothing horrible happened to us or our house.
We said many grateful prayers last night! Thank you again!
