Multiple gas leaks found Monday in Aspen

Aspen firefighters were busy responding Monday to multiple gas leaks. 

They responded to a natural gas leak at the Maroon Creek Road bus stop just off of the Maroon Creek Roundabout, and two carbon monoxide leaks in Aspen’s East End and Smuggler homes, Aspen Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Ken Josselyn said. 

Aspen Fire received a dispatch at 6:19 p.m. about the natural gas leak near the roundabout. Josselyn said they responded to the scene with two fire engines and Aspen Fire staff.

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“We found significant discharge of gas,” Josselyn said. “It’s not the first time this has actually happened there before.”

He said he responded to a gas leak at the same location a few years ago.

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Josselyn characterized the leak on Monday as abnormally large but said it was not a threat to the public, as the mechanical system was designed to dispel gas straight up in the event of a failure. 

Aspen Fire notified Black Hills Energy about the leak. The Aspen gas provider responded by sending technicians and shut off the leak 30 minutes after arriving on scene Monday night, Josselyn said. 

Traffic was not obstructed, apart from the stop on Maroon Creek Road near the roundabout, Josselyn said. 

“We were able to isolate the area,” Josselyn said. “We didn’t have any concerns about any exposure of repercussions from the gas release.”

He said the Black Hills technicians remained on-site working on the equipment through the night. 

Black Hills Energy released a statement to The Aspen Times regarding the leak.

“Black Hills crews responded on Dec. 9 to a damaged natural gas line near Aspen, Colorado on Maroon Creek Road near Highway 82,” Black Hills stated. “Crews worked with emergency response agencies to safely secure the area and no customers lost service. Black Hills Energy would like to thank the Aspen Fire Protection District and Aspen Police Department for their assistance.” 

Black Hills also provided general safety tips:

• If you smell natural gas, leave the building or area immediately and tell others to leave too.
• After you’re safely away from the area, call 911 and our emergency number at 888-890-5554. Never assume someone else has reported a natural gas leak. Alert your neighbors. 
• Do not turn on lights, ignite a flame, use a cell phone or use anything that might cause a spark, including a flashlight or a generator.

Though not positive, Josselyn said he thinks a failure in Black Hills’ mechanical system caused the leak. He did not know why the equipment might have failed. 

Zach Benevento-Zahner, an Aspen resident who lives less than a mile from the roundabout, said he could smell natural gas from his house Monday night.

Josselyn said the natural gas leak at the roundabout was unrelated to carbon monoxide natural gas leaks in two Aspen houses. 

He received a dispatch at 6:30 a.m. Monday morning after a carbon monoxide detector in one of the houses signaled a leak.

They responded and notified Black Hills Energy of the leak. Nobody was in the house during the leak, which released a life-threatening amount of carbon monoxide into the home, Josselyn said. 

The same circumstances were true of the call to the home Monday night, though Josselyn was not a part of that call. Both houses were second homes.

“When we run into levels such as what we found in both of these homes,” Josselyn said, “it could have been a completely different story we would be talking about today if there had been people in these homes.”

The leaks came from a ventilation malfunction. Josselyn thinks caretakers of the houses likely hired ventilation technicians to fix the house breakers, which creates carbon monoxide as a byproduct when heating the home. 

Normally the carbon monoxide is dispensed out of a house through the ventilation system. 

But if the breaker is not shut off during maintenance, it could dispel carbon monoxide into the house if the ventilation system is not functioning properly, Josselyn said. He suspects this happened in both instances.

“It would have been human error,” Josselyn said, adding, “For one reason or another, those vents had been either disconnected or loosened, which allowed them to not work properly.”

Breakers are left on in empty houses to keep pipes from freezing in the winter. 

Josselyn said winter is a time when they receive more calls about carbon monoxide leaks because people use appliances to heat their homes at greater frequency. 

Aspen Fire Chief Rick Balentine encouraged people to get their appliances serviced by calling their installers.

“Make sure people know their boilers are serviced,” Balentine said. 

He said people must also be mindful that pipes expelling carbon monoxide can clog with snow in the winter.

“If anyone smells anything in their house at all, please just call 911,” he said.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.