Excessive natural gas smell drove record calls for Elyria Fire Dept. on Wednesday

The Elyria Fire Department saw a record number of emergency calls on Wednesday, driven by an issue of excessive natural gas odors being reported across Lorain County. Columbia Gas of Ohio has said the issue was caused by an overabundance of an additive in the gas supply that is not harmful, but smells very potent. The company said the issue has been reported in at least Lorain, Cuyahoga, Medina, Stark and Columbiana counties. Elyria Fire Chief Joe Pronesti said that his department responded to 140 emergency calls on Wednesday, about double its previous record in a single day. "It was a record day in the history of the department for calls in a (24 hour) shift," Pronesti said. "Our average is about 15 calls. … It was certainly a record day. It blew any other day, even ones where we have big storms, out of the water by probably two times." Columbia Gas representatives have said the smell, often likened to rotten eggs, came from an excessive amount of the additive mercaptan by an upstream gas supplier. Erica Chronaberry, communications manager for Columbia Gas of Ohio, declined to release the name of the supplier on Thursday. Natural gas is naturally odorless and colorless, so mercaptan is added to make a gas leak more noticeable to residents and emergency personnel. But with an excess amount of it in the supply, the smell can be noticed even when there is no leak. The company said that mercaptan is an organic compound that is not harmful to humans in the amounts added to natural gas, and the "situation is considered safe." "We have been hearing concerns about the use of mercaptan in natural gas pipelines and its potential hazards," a Columbia Gas news release said. "We understand there is a lot of misinformation circulating at this time and wanted to share some important information to help ease these concerns." The inclusion of an additive to provide a distinct smell to natural gas is required by federal regulations. Pronesti said the first call about the smell of gas came in at 8:59 a.m. Wednesday, and a few trickled in throughout the morning and early afternoon. It was at around 5 p.m. that calls really took off, he said, with the majority of the 140 total calls coming between 5 and 9 p.m. Even after Columbia Gas realized and announced the problem, Pronesti said the department still had to respond to every call of a possible gas leak. "We handle these natural gas calls every single day," he said. "You have to take them seriously and monitor because there's too much of a chance for an explosion." The call volume forced the department to call in additional firefighters and send units well outside of their home areas simply to get to everything. "The shift that worked did a hell of a job handling it," he said. "It was our busiest day and probably will stand as the busiest day in the history of the department as far as calls. But they handled it well; I'm proud of them." Pronesti commended shift lead Jamison Norris for his handling of the situation. Despite the vast majority of the calls being false alarms, Pronesti said that the increased smell actually did lead to the discovery of several small gas leaks that had otherwise gone undetected. He said there were at least 10 such cases on Wednesday. "One of the things the overuse of the mercaptan did was, you could have a very small leak in your home," Pronesti said. "But as soon as they added more, you smell those small leaks and it was actually a benefit." In cases where crews did detect a leak, they contacted Columbia Gas to shut off the gas supply and send a crew to repair the leak. As of about 5 p.m. Thursday, Pronesti said the last call the department had received regarding the excessive smell of gas was just after 10 a.m. that day. Neither Pronseti nor Columbia Gas had a comprehensive list of affected municipalities, but Pronesti said to his knowledge Elyria, Oberlin and Wellington were among the most affected in Lorain County. A Columbia Gas release sent Thursday afternoon said that the company was still working to respond to odor calls in Northeast Ohio, but Chronaberry said calls had begun to taper off. "Crews continue to respond to odor calls in northeastern Ohio as quickly as possible," a release from Columbia Gas said. "We have been receiving inquiries on the response process and wanted to address a few concerns. We will not cancel an emergency call. We take these calls seriously and will continue to respond day and night until one of our technicians has completed a thorough safety check." The company said that all residents who believe they smell natural gas should call (800) 344-4077 to report it. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.