Kippie Guthrie: Southwest Gas, Jackrabbit Plumbing, building division assist in dangerous home gas leak

I am writing this letter to inform the citizens of Carson City about a wonderful, free service provided to all of us by Southwest Gas, which basically none of us are aware they do for us. It is a wonderful, lifesaving gift to all of us.

Last Thursday, my husband and I were sitting in our home on Steamboat Drive. A woman pulled up, parked and exited the car. She was carrying a red stick and walked up to every house and down the street. When we walked outside to get in our car, she stopped us. It seems she works for Southwest Gas. She explained to us that her job is to take the red stick, which is a “sniffer,” and check everyone’s home for leaks. Unfortunately, our house tested positive. She advised us that she was sure we had a leak, which could most definitely be dangerous, and advised us to contact Southwest Gas ASAP. I called their office and explained the situation and one of their employees was at our home in minutes. He also used a more sophisticated “sniffer” and confirmed that we did, in fact, have a leak. We had not smelled any odor, nor did we have any idea we were in danger. The Southwest employee explained the process we had to go through to remedy the situation, which is not an easy process, and while apologizing profusely to us, cut the gas to our home.

The next step was to find someone to do the job. Believe me, finding a plumber to help you in an emergency is not an easy task. I had called several with no success and upon the recommendation of a friend, I called Jackrabbit Plumbing and explained my dilemma to the lady that answered that call. She could not have been any nicer and understanding how desperate I was for assistance managed to clear a spot for me the day at 1 p.m. At 11:30, I received a call from her technician that he was on his way to our home. Imagine that — a plumber being early. He set right to work on our problem and within minutes, he had located the source of the leak and had the damaged pipe pulled and was on his way to get a new piece of pipe and the permit he needed from the Carson City Building Department. He then repaired the system and pressure checked our system.

I had visited the Carson City Building Department earlier in the day to try to ascertain what was needed to obtain the permit necessary to get our repair done and get our gas turned back on. I had been warned that getting that permit was not going to be an easy process. How wrong those people were. The moment I walked into the office, Cody Coleman came out from behind his desk to see how he could help me with that part of the process. He gave me a form to fill out, explained everything to me and told me what had to be done. I could not get the permit personally; Jackrabbit Plumbing had to apply for it, but by the time our plumber got to their office, it was only a matter of minutes before he walked out with the permit in his hand. Coleman advised me that he would do everything in his power to see that we were not left without gas all weekend and he is a man of his word. Once advised by our plumber that the job was ready for inspection, it was only minutes before he arrived. We passed inspection with flying colors. He then contacted Southwest Gas and gave them the okay to turn our service back on.

Shortly before 6 p.m., definitely after hours, a Southwest truck pulled up in front of our home and Bryan hopped out. Within minutes, he had run the necessary checks on our system and had us up and running. The fact that we had made his day a little longer was of no concern to him. All he wanted was for us to be safe and comfortable.

I am quite sure that most of us have no idea that Southwest Gas took such good care of their systems in the background. Our situation could have been disastrous. The leaking gas had gathered under our home. We had no clue that we had a leak. And trust me, if you are ever in this unfortunate situation, you can count on them to make sure you are safe and protected. I cannot thank Southwest Gas, Cory Coleman of the Carson City Building Division and Jackrabbit Plumbing for being so efficient and caring. We are fortunate indeed to have all three of these entities working on our behalf.