Hundreds of people in a Virginia town reported a strong natural gas odor, which caused evacuations Wednesday.
Firefighters, police and sheriff's deputies were run ragged responding to more than 280 calls for the odor in Warrenton — most during a four-hour window Wednesday.
"They closed down the streets, evacuated some stores,” said Darric Hamilton, who smelled inside a store. “It really did kill business a bit."
Fauquier High School was evacuated. Classes Thursday were canceled.
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The Warrenton Aquatic and Recreation Facility also was evacuated Wednesday.
"It's a little scary, absolutely, when you see about eight or nine police cars and emergency vehicles rapidly come up," said Donna McKillop, who evacuated her downtown store.
Columbia Gas set up a mobile command center where gas crews determined that gas pressures were normal and no gas lines were damaged, but higher odor levels were detected in the company's system.
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Wednesday night, a column of fire shot into the air near Fauquier High as Columbia Gas burned off some natural gas in the area gas lines until about 5 a.m. Thursday. It’s called flaring.
In a statement to News4, a Columbia Gas spokesperson said flaring “is a routine procedure in which natural gas is burned off the system in order to ensure the safety of our infrastructure in a variety of scenarios, including an over odorization situation.”
Several members of the community, though, are furious they weren't notified ahead of time to prevent panic.
“I think it would be helpful to keep people from being scared if we had immediate information," McKillop said.
Columbia Gas is investigating the cause of the odor. On Thursday, crews worked on gas lines at a major intersection where the Virginia Department of Transportation is making road and sidewalk improvements. Officials said the work there is related to the odor.
Fauquier High School will be open Friday.
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