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A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:34 pm
by jpingram5
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/nazaret ... _big-photo

This happened in a community about 20 minutes from me. The homeowner was aware of a gas leak and so were some neighbors but yet no one had taken action. All it takes is a good build up of gas and then turn your light switch on and its game over.

From other things I found that a lot of the neighbors are making it sound like this is the community managers/owners fault for not doing anything. But from what I understand this home was owned and not a rental unit. The manger/owner would have nothing to do with your gas leak. The owners knew about it for 2 weeks apparently and did nothing to resolve it. It's sad that a life was lost here but it is also boggling that they did not take any action to fix this gas leak. I'm curious to find out if the managers/owners were renting this unit or if they had some responsibilities to the gas tanks.

Don't sit around and wait or hope your landlord will fix it. Call the fire dept, call a professional and then bill your landlord.

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:48 pm
by 1987Commodore
Unbelievable. Someone died because no one could be bothered to make a phone call.

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:51 pm
by Greg
...But it was only a small leak!!

People do not realize just how powerful a gas explosion can be.

Greg

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:47 am
by Greg S
Even if itwas a rental unit the landlord would need to have been informed of the leak. If they were informed and took no action then they will be held liable.
Home owners on the other hand are fully responsible.

As Forest Gump would say "Stupid is as Stupid does".

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 4:18 pm
by jpingram5
Turns out this place had its own underground propane infrastructure which was built and maintained by the park. They have one massive propane tank and the sell it to everyone in the park. Hearing tons of complaints from residents saying that these leaks have been on going and constantly ignored.

Everyone in the area with gas/propane is freaking out now. A lot of my neighbors have been nagging me to come check their houses out. Biggest thing I found were the roof exhaust/intake vents were being blocked up by ice/snow. Turned into roof clearing day today.

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 4:40 pm
by jpingram5
Greg wrote:...But it was only a small leak!!

People do not realize just how powerful a gas explosion can be.

Greg
I'll tell you what......I went by earlier to see it for my self and a neighbor had some home video & photos right after when it went off. Man there was really nothing left of that place. It was like a dozer mowed threw it. I never seen damage like that up close. All the residents I seen all looked really scared and said no one has slept right. About 20 minutes into being their what looked like a manager had pointed at me and then the police had asked if I was not a resident that I had to leave the property and stand out front with the dozens of news stations lol. What does that tell you when they won't let anyone in there? Surely hiding things. One of the neighbors said they brought in a whole bunch of workers to inspect every single home and what not. Sounds like they are trying to correct any issues and hope the do not get sued.

Apparently a local Mechanical HVAC company use to service their lines and the homes had rejected working their 2 years ago after insisting several repairs to the infrastructure and fixing some of piping in the homes that were not to local code standards. These owners sound like they had been cutting corners for a long time.

This really pisses me off how someone could be so foolish to just act like it's not a big deal. Now that they could possibly be held responsible for the death of a man it's all hands on deck all of a sudden. Always happens like this. Sad.

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:07 pm
by Greg S
This will put an end to the park supplying propane. Residents will have to each have their own tanks in the future.
If the owner does get sued the likely hood is the park will be closed and everyone will have to leave unless it is a very large park and the owner has deep pockets.
This park may survive a lawsuit if is owned by a corporation but the likelihood is a corporation would not have had a park provided propane system.

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:42 pm
by Greg
At this point it should be a murder investigation. I,m sure the investigators and lawyers will get to the bottom of it.
The bottom line that the owner of the system is responsible, the people that were supposed to maintain it are just co-defendants. You just know that there is already suit paperwork already started.

Greg

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 8:58 pm
by Greg S
Yep, somebody is going to win the lawsuit lottery. I imagine the ambulance chasers are tripping over each other circling the park. :roll:

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 2:04 pm
by DaleM
The sad thing here is park management probably knew of the problem and ignored it. I see this a lot in many of the parks I do business in. Park owners don't want to spend any money and managers have their hands tied and are not allowed to get anything done without consent from the owners be it a sole proprietor or corporation. I see several potential deadly situations every month yet regardless of my efforts nothing is ever done. I tell my customers to call their local health department but they are afraid to for fear of being evicted for rocking the boat. Since I have no horse in the race my calls are fruitless, health departments ignore me because I'm neither a homeowner or resident of the town.

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:45 pm
by Greg
DaleM wrote:The sad thing here is park management probably knew of the problem and ignored it. I see this a lot in many of the parks I do business in. Park owners don't want to spend any money and managers have their hands tied and are not allowed to get anything done without consent from the owners be it a sole proprietor or corporation. I see several potential deadly situations every month yet regardless of my efforts nothing is ever done. I tell my customers to call their local health department but they are afraid to for fear of being evicted for rocking the boat. Since I have no horse in the race my calls are fruitless, health departments ignore me because I'm neither a homeowner or resident of the town.
Dale, Rather then mess with the Health dept, go to the Codes officer. As a contractor they will usually listen to you. Usually the Codes officer has as much if not more pull then the Health dept. Plus once they are notified, they're on the hook if anything happens.

Greg

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 9:48 am
by DaleM
There aren't any codes when it comes to "trailer" homes in the Chicagoland area. No specific guidelines are followed regarding set up, utility hook ups, exteriors, interiors, etc. Basically they wash their hands of it because the individual homeowners are not taxpayers in the towns. The park owners, however, are. It's a sad state of affairs, I see residential water heaters and furnaces installed all the time by parks in their rehabbed homes. It's cheaper and bottom line is all they care about.

I follow HUD code for everything in/on the home whenever I do any work and when we install homes go above the "norm" for electrical, sewer, water, and gas services to the home. Needless to say because of my costs I rarely get complete sets from parks.

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 7:36 pm
by Greg
Here, the zoning/building code enforcement oversees BOTH the parks (codes effecting the park's property it's self) and the individual homes for building code violations.

The Guy in my town has received threats from the owner of the park that I used to live in. He could just drive through the park and write violations without getting out of the car. He is a very laid back guy, when I moved out home I works with him every step and never had any problems.

It seems strange that there is no one to enforce building codes it your area. Even if it is a Mobile, who determines if the home is fit to live in? And who watches over the park owners? I think one accident like the explosion would open a can of worms and heads would roll.

Greg

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 12:15 pm
by DaleM
On installs parks tell us we have to follow county codes for everything, gas, water, sewer, electrical, then in the next breath they tell us they will provide materials for the installation. Wire is undersized, there's no conduit for the wiring, they usually drop off a roll of 1/2" copper tubing for the water and gas line then provide 20' lengths of ABS for the sewer, which usually come tucked in the frames of the home. It's a hopeless situation most of the time. Again it gets back to the bottom line. Go the cheapest route and once the home is sold they got theirs.

I could post some pics that would blow you away!!

Re: A deadly reminder to take gas leaks serious

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:05 pm
by Greg S
Regrettably in many cases park owners are motivated more by what the end buyer is willing to pay for a mobile home than to build a home properly and hope to find a buyer that can afford it. Doing it right always costs more up front but buyers of these types of homes are rarely prepared to pay the premium to be safe. All too often this demographic of buyers are more concerned with price than safety.
Assuming every park/home owner did everything to code, as they should, it would all balance out in the end. Homes would be worth more and the overall quality of tenants and parks would improve.
Buyers deserve to get a safe home but they need to be prepared to pay what it is worth.