What to Do If You Smell Gas

Leave the building first. Read the rest from outside.

Do not flip any light switch on or off. Do not use a phone, a garage door opener or an appliance. Do not light anything. Do not go looking for the source. Any of those can make a spark.

Get everyone out, leave the door open behind you, and move well away from the building.

Then call, from outside — your gas utility or 911. Either will send someone out, and neither will charge you for checking.

• New York: Con Edison or NYSEG

• South Carolina: Dominion Energy

The numbers are on your gas bill and on our services page. Do not call us first — we'll be there after the line is made safe, not before.

Don't go back inside until the utility says it's clear.

What you're smelling. Natural gas has no smell of its own, so utilities add a compound that smells like rotten eggs or sulphur so you can detect it. Trust it even if it's faint.

Other signs of a leak. Hissing near a gas line or appliance. Dead or dying vegetation in a line over a buried gas line. A pilot light that keeps going out. A gas bill that has climbed for no reason.

Carbon monoxide is a different thing. CO has no smell at all, and you cannot detect it without an alarm. If your CO alarm sounds, treat it exactly the same way — get out, then call from outside.

After the utility has been. Call us and we'll handle the repair. Gas line work needs a licensed plumber — in most places we're the only trade permitted to do gas work inside a building.