Natural gas leak in New York

[39mto39g]

People are such idiots. A reporter said she asked Firefighters where the leak was coming from and she said the FF said they did not know and then she made some remark about them standing around. another reporter said that natural gas is heavier than air and thats why the gas cloud was staying around.

Natural gas is made up of several gasses, most of it is methane. it is lighter than air.
Natural gas after refining has no oder, they add an oder witch is called mercaptan. Sometimes a small amount of mercaptan is set loose in the air and the result is what seems to be a huge natural gas leak. Mix in reporters and city officials that don't know what they are talking about and it becomes a 2 hour story full of inaccurate statements and guess's.

Ron

[39mto39g]

NYPD
says the gas is not dangerous.? A gas is not dangerous. Idiots.
Natural gas is dangerous. First it burns, if contained, it explodes. It is an suffocant, in that it displaces oxygen. That will make you light headed and for most people nauseated and then unconscious.

Ron

[SparrowHawk62]

Other than the normal stench of the City, I'm surprised anyone would notice a strange smell. Anyone have a match?


Mysterious Gas-Like Odor Hits New York City
By KAREN MATTHEWS, AP

NEW YORK (Jan. 8) - Authorities were investigating the source of a mysterious gas-like odor Monday that wafted over a large part of Manhattan, prompting the evacuation of some building and the suspension of some rail service.

Adam Rountree, AP
Workers who left their offices after smelling a mysterious gas-like odor stand outside of the Time & Life Building in New York on Monday. There were no reports of injuries from the event.

Officials were quick to allay public fears as the odor spread almost to the northern edge of Manhattan, with federal authorities saying that terrorism was not suspected.

The Fire Department began receiving calls about the odor around 9 a.m. Monday, said spokesman Tim Hinchey. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey temporarily suspended some of its PATH commuter train service between New Jersey and Manhattan as a precaution.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was no indication that the air was unsafe to breathe, and he said sensors did not show an unusually high concentration of natural gas.

"It may just be an unpleasant smell," Bloomberg said.

There was a small gas leak in Greenwich Village, but it would not have been enough to account for the pervasive odor, the mayor said.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said there was no indication of terrorism and no credible intelligence to suggest any imminent threat to the city. He said the agency is closely monitoring the situation.

Crews from utility company Consolidated Edison were investigating, but they had found no abnormal changes in the gas flow with in its transmission system, said spokesman Chris Olert. "If there was a big leak, we would see a change in the gas flow," he said.

Olert said the company fielded hundreds of calls from people concerned about the odor, from as far north as Washington Heights to as far south as Greenwich Village and as far east as Lexington Avenue.

In some areas, office buildings and apartment buildings were evacuated as a precaution.

"The smell was very strong. It was very scary," said Yolanda Van Gemd, an administrator at ASA, a business school near the Empire State Building that was evacuated.

In August, seven people were treated at hospitals after a gaseous smell in the boroughs of Queens and Staten Island.

Natural gas is odorless; it is the chemical that is added to it that gives it the recognizable odor.

Associated Press Writers Jeffrey Gold in Newark, N.J., and Samantha Gross, Deepti Hajela, Ula Ilnytzky and Amy Westfeldt in New York City contributed to this report.


01/08/07 12:18 EST

[SEATJERKER]

...

...go back to the movie "Taxi Driver" where DeNiro says,...

... I wish it would rain, De whole city is a sewer, it stinks, somebody aught to clean it up.......... or something along dat line,...


..."It's just an unplesant smell", my first thought was the rain, and the cloud cover was holding it's own, and not allowing the natural smells to disapate, then "dirty bomb", but nobody's dropping so,........


...guess the city just farted, and the sky clamped it's jeans tight,...

...

[QM3steve]

I worked for an electrical appliance and supply company locally for three years. July 5th one of our workers said they had broken a 3/4 nat gas line in the (28,000 sq. ft.) warehouse. I asked when it happened. "Monday." was his answer. Monday was July 3rd. I called the fire dept. and emptied the building. Natural gas ignites between 5% and 15% saturation. The saturation was 67% at roof level. 39, I could have been your quiet neighbor. It had to go up through the ignition point and come back down through it. The building emtied after about three hours and things went back to normal. Lucky I'd say!

[39mto39g]

Ignition temp and flash point for Natural gas concentration is kinda low. However once you go beyond that, it's pretty hard to ignite it. Although the smell must have been something else, the actual danger was minimal. We carried explosion meters and I seen many times cig being lit when the explosion meter was pegged.
Evacuating the building is what I would have done also, but not for the explosion fear, for the esficseation problem.
A 3/4 inch line inside a building is a low pressure line, (around 5 psi) now if you were on the other side of the gas meter.
But then You are talking New York, so I just don't know.

Ron

[covan]

Ron,

WTF is "esficseation problem"?

[QM3steve]

We knew that it was too high to ignite but it got there going through the zone and then had to come back down through it without ignition. Incidentally, the static spark from walking on the rubber roof, that jumped from the vent was the heartstopper.

[39mto39g]

Covan

asphyxiation

Now you go correct everyone else's spelling or don't ever do it to me again. Start with yourself.

Ron

ps
WTF does "theri" mean?
and Im not real smart but "It is overlong and well deserved." doesn't make sense. What does it mean.

[covan]

Ron,

Wasn't correcting anyone's spelling. Just never saw the word before and thought it was some technical term or jargon. Thanks for explaining.