The NJ Gas Company Made a Boo-Boo!

I woke up this morning to the glorious sound of jackhammers, again. The Gas Company had been laying new lines across this town, but I have been assured, reassured and confirmed, that when they do shut the gas off:

• The company will inform us ahead of time so that the tenants would be prepared. They even confirmed exactly WHERE the shut off valve was located at my building.
• Assured me that a qualified team of workers will come out and personally light each and every stove, furnace and water heater in this apartment complex.
• I had NOTHING to worry about!

Is anyone familiar with Murphy’s Law?

To set the background properly, I have been derailed by a Summer Cold. The only cure is to buy a bottle of liquid Dayquil, insert straw and sip all day to keep symptoms at bay. This job does not allow sick days. If something is broke, it gotta be fixed regardless of how crappy I feel. Sigh.

But back to the Gas Company. They had been working in front of the building next door. They did not alert me, I wasn’t concerned…until I got the first and second calls from tenants about the smell of gas and their stoves being out.

Do you know what happens when you call the Gas Company’s Emergency Line? The recorded message warns you, that In Case of Gas Leak, call the Emergency Line and it gives the very same #$r%%# number to call, followed by a recorded list of ‘your party’s extension.’ Aaaargggh!

I left the phone call problem to my brother-in-law and grabbed all the keys, a big stick lighter and began the hunt thru EVERY apartment for unlit stoves.

People! Gas stoves leaking gas into apartments, some with kids and pets, kinda freaked me out!

3 flights of stairs. 26 units. I should have legs like a gymnast.

Lighting the stove top pilot lights are not a problem, it is the friggin’ oven pilot light that sucks. One has to lie on the floor, stick a lighter all the way in the back of the broiler while turning the gas on! Those burners have been known to PUFF a lot of flames really fast. I value the hair on my arms, eyebrows and eyelashes.

To NJ Natural Gas: A 2-hour response to a gas emergency is NOT acceptable.

Gratefully the Gas worker who responded is a neighbor from the next building. The Gas Company actually told him that they turned the gas off to HIS building, not ours. Remarkable, since HIS building is total electric, not one gas line anywhere. Yippee.

So, NJ Natural Gas I gotta ask:

• Your records state that you turned off the gas to a Total Electric Building, yet, your crack team of Stove Re-lighters did not see fit to check that their stoves, water heaters and furnaces were re-lit in said building. Oops.
• It took over 2 hours for someone to respond! We have children and pets in apartments with UNLIT gas stoves. I was a tad concerned.

PS: There have been people, over the years, which have griped or bragged, that they could do my job better. Yeah, come spend a day, lying on some not-too-clean kitchen floors lighting pilot lights. I still have a crappy summer cold. I took another shower. I wrote this blog. It was cathartic.