Grant County Firefighters Forced To Breach Door Due To Gas Leak

Grant County Firefighters were called out around lunch time, Monday, May 1, for a possible gas leak in an apartment straight across north from Grant County Courthouse, in an alley.

"Atmos called they were doing leak checks," said Grant County Fire Chief John Crosby. "They just happened to find that one in the alley and after they did some checking on the building, they thought they were getting some gas readings from there, too. They had indications of gas coming from the apartment. (Atmos) was worried about a gas build up. They were worried about it getting enough to blow up."

Crosby advised Grant County Commissioners about the incident during a department head meeting with them May 2.

"(There was) a main gas line leak in the alley and it had spread," Crosby said. "It was pushing out because the ground was so hard, and it got into a house by the parking lot."

According to Crosby, Atmos employees were so concerned they asked the fire department to breach the door.

"Atmos wanted to get in the house and we couldn't find the owner or the renter," Crosby said. They wanted us to breach the door for them."

Crosby said they asked Atmos if they were going to pay for the damages to the door and they said they would.

"They said they had to get in to make sure there wasn't a gas build up in the building," Crosby said. "They went inside to check and they did find some gas inside the house when they went in."

According to Crosby, Atmos had to dig up the line in the alley.

"Atmos is going around town checking for leaks," he added. "They do that every year and if they find them, they repair them."

Firefighters respond any time there is a gas leak.

"The fire department is automatically paged to go," Crosby said. "That is Atmos' policy. They want a fire truck there just in case something happens. If there is an explosion or something they want us on standby. Any time meters are hit or anything  - we respond. Sometimes we can stop it, sometimes we can't. It  depends on where the leak's at."