Gas Leak

Before you start digging a trench in your yard there is someone you should call. There is an organization that will let you know where the the hazards are below the surface.

Seems the backhoe operator at one of our local construction site either never checked where not to dig or had received some bad information (I'm being nice and assuming he's not just a total moron). He ended up digging a trench perpendicular to a gas main that fed an apartment building. The 2" pipe was completely sheared off. The natural gas escaped into the air with a roar.

Once we arrived on scene we did exactly what the construction workers did. Call someone else and wait...at a distance. The first PG&E worker to arrive was there in just a few minutes. He in turn did the same thing as us, call someone else and wait at a distance. Finally, after 2 hours, the crew arrived to cap the leak. We had to stay on scene the entire time just in case something bad happened.

My question is why the long calls like this one always happen just as you were sitting down to eat a meal?