Lubbock Fire Department and Atmos crews responded to two gas leaks across the Hub City today.
“I walked out this morning to get the mail, and it was just an instant smell,” Neighbor Joanne Rodriguez said, “It smelled like almost rotten egg, and then I look to my right and see all these firemen and asked them ‘What’s going on?'”
Rodriguez has lived in her house for years, but never experienced anything like this.
“It’s dangerous right now, but since we have our gas monitors, we can know exactly where the gas is,” Lubbock Fire Department Captain Kevin Ivy said, “We’re lucky to have a breeze…it’s moving a lot of the gas out.”
The gas leak forced Rodriguez’s neighbors to evacuate their homes.
“They just kind of told me to stay, to be on standby and they’ll let me know if I don’t, but across the street all my neighbors are gone,” Rodriguez said.
Captain Ivy said a city sewer crew was performing routine maintenance when they hit the gas line.
“The alley is where they put all the utilities as they try and dig for sewer lines, then they can hit a gas line since all utilities in most of this area are right behind the houses,” Ivy said.
The normal protocol is to ‘call before you dig,’ but Ivy said accidents can still happen.
“Almost all crews do call before they dig, but you never get it one-hundred percent when they do look for the lines…so they can be missed.”
