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Earlier this year, a Queens home in the Floral Park section exploded, killing wife and mother of three Ghanwatti Boodram. Now the Daily News reports, "Con Edison workers stumbled and bumbled for more than an hour instead of evacuating a Queens house before it blew up in April, a new state report says."
Neighbors had called Con Ed about a gas leak; the report claims that the "dispatcher took 22 minutes to find a mechanic - who then spent 45 minutes testing dangerous gas levels without telling people to leave their homes in Floral Park... The unnamed mechanic was preparing to knock on the door of 80-50 260th St. when it exploded, killing Ghanwatti Boodram." A lawyer representing Boodram's husband, who is suing Con Ed, said, "They probably didn't dispatch the right people."
Con Ed says it has changed its procedure for investigating gas leaks. And City Councilman Eric Gioia gave some advice, "If you had called the Fire Department instead of Con Ed, you would have gotten a completely different response." So maybe call both.
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Absolutely you should call the fire department. Of course, they're not all perfect but which group of employees would you rather trust with your life, FDNY's or ConEd's?
This is not surprising. I called in a gas leak 10 days ago because I smelled gas in the hallway of my building. First off, the ConED emergency technicians came 1 hour and 15 minute after I made the call (the phone representative said that it might be up to two hours). The technicians traced the leak to my neighbor's apartment and capped it. They then turned off the gas to MY apartment (which did not have a leak) instead of the gas to my neighbor's apartment. I have been without gas for 10 days now and Con Ed insists that it is because I have a leak (which I don't now nor did I ever). How many more houses do they need to blow up before they get their act together?
Oh yeah, Con Ed notified the NYFD. They came twice: Once about 6 hours after Con Ed came and then an hour after.
"Oh yeah, Con Ed notified the NYFD. They came twice: Once about 6 hours after Con Ed came and then an hour after."
That's because ConEd called them and told them there was no emergency, that they'd be turning the gas off. So FDNY monitors the situation but doesn't make an alarm response. If you'd called FDNY, they'd have alerted ConEd but also would firefighters immediately to assess the situation. If there was a strong gas presence -- which presumably would have been the case in the Queens situation -- they'd have evacuated the area.
ConEd has a self-motivation to minimize the apparent danger when there's a leak. They want it to look like nothing is out of the ordinary. The fire department has no reason not to treat it like any other potential emergency situation.