Thanks to people being idiots I had the Fire Department at my house last night

[LynneSin]

:grr:

So I'm sitting on my sofa working on my computer and I smell gas. Really strong scent. I'm checking everything in my house thinking I have a gas leak but oddly enough the odor is only in the living room. (my front door was opened)

Finally I go outside and there is a car parked in front of my house with gas leaking from it. I have no clue who the owners are (I recognize most of their vehicles and usually they park in front of their house - we all have street parking).

My roomie and I traipse around knocking on the doors from the houses across the street to see if the car belongs to them (they have a city parking sticker and I don't know those neighbors as well). No one owns the car. So I call the non-emergency line to get the fire department. They usually have stuff they can toss on gasoline to neutralize it. I'm worried some idiot will walk by and toss a cigarette and *BOOM* there goes my house.

Fire department send out A FULL TRUCK (I'm embarrassed, they could have had some guy walk over - they're only a few blocks away). Turns out something was broken with the gas tank and it was a leak. Since there is nothing else we can do without the owner we toss around enough of that absorbing stuff to fix the problem.

An hour later the woman shows up with a police officer (they did call in the plates and tracked down the woman). Turns out the woman lives around the corner but parked her car in front of my house that night. Her reason - they have street cleaning on Wednesdays and she had to park her car elsewhere......


HEY DUMBASS DID YOU READ THE BIG SIGN IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE - WE HAVE IT TOO YOU IDIOT!!!!!

Oh and she also has a driveway but didn't want to park there because she thought something was leaking from her car

:grr:


:grr:

[hobbit709]

1. You have regular street cleaning?

The city charges us about $5/mo and the sweeper truck comes around about once every 4 months. And without warning so usually somebody is parked on the street and they just go around.

[LynneSin]

2. Yep - every wednesday

:woohoo:

Another idiot is in for a big surprise when he gets a parking ticket in the mail. There is another car without city parking in front of my house right now. They don't leave tickets on the car - they mail them to you (I should know I forgot the first week last month)

[CreekDog]

5. we have it every Monday morning

and i'm in a suburb. :D

[petronius]

3. Well, if she parked in her regular spot, than the street-cleaner wouldn't have

been able to clean up all the gas in front of her house. Duh!

[datasuspect]

4. they use natural gas as fuel for an automobile?

i don't think gasoline has mercaptan as an additive.

[LynneSin]

7. I just knew I smelled gas - I don't know the specific smells

geez

This isn't beer - not like I've sampled enough to have an educated nose with the smell

[datasuspect]

8. mercaptan is an additive that smells like rotten eggs

it's what they add to natural gas (the kind in your house) because natural gas is odorless.

gasoline is essentially a waste byproduct and smells like gasoline.

[CreekDog]

6. they frequently send out the big truck with the crews

where i live even paramedic calls get the big truck (they can get there first).

i asked a firefighter about that and it's because if they get another call, they want their crew and equipment able to respond in one shot.

our firefighters even take their truck to the grocery store when they go shopping and i've seen them have to leave their stuff and respond to a call from the parking lot.

[MajorChode]

9. Was she blonde?

[MountainLaurel]

10. She ought to get together

With my parent's former neighbors who emptied the gas tank of a lawn mower directly into the sewage system (just took off the manhole cover and dumped it in there).