Propane or gas smell

Use this when

You smell rotten eggs, skunk or anything like gas, indoors or out, even faintly.

Done when

Responders have said you may go back in, and the whole gas system has been checked.

Who

You, then responders, then your supplier or gas utility

Written for this manual, last checked against sources November 4, 2026. Who wrote it

E-1.1 Leave before you do anything else

Getting people out comes first because a spark inside can set off gas you can't see. The propane industry's own brochure says not to operate lights, appliances, telephones or cell phones near a leak and to report it from a neighbor's home or another building away from it. If your phone isn't already in your hand, don't go back for it. Use a neighbor's.

The brochures and the fire district page linked here also include a tank-valve step. This manual leaves it out on purpose: get out and touch no valve. It asks for 911 and your supplier or utility, both from outside. Follow the drill above.

Your supplier's number and your utility's emergency number belong on your house card, §1-1. Natural gas customers should find the emergency number on the gas bill. This manual doesn't print utility numbers because they couldn't be confirmed when it was last checked in November 2026.

E-1.2 A faint smell still counts

Propane is often described as smelling like rotten eggs, skunk spray or a dead animal. A Colorado fire district says even a faint odor means act. Treat a weak smell the same as a strong one. If the smell is outdoors, the same drill applies: get well away from it and from the tank.

Your nose can't be trusted to judge how bad it is, for three reasons:

• Both gases are odorless until an odorant is added, and that odorant can fade as gas passes through soil, concrete, drywall and wood, or sits in new pipes or tanks.
• Colds, allergies, smoking, cooking smells, age and odor fatigue can all hide it. So can being asleep.
• A silent propane detector proves nothing. A detector is an added layer, and any smell still means act.

NIOSH, the federal workplace safety institute, describes a 2019 propane explosion that killed one firefighter and hospitalized six, with odor fade a key factor. It tells fire departments not to rely on smell. Neither should you.

If a propane detector sounds and you smell nothing, this manual's advice is to run the same drill.

E-1.3 Going back in

You go back when responders say so, and not before. Before anyone uses an appliance again, have your retailer or a qualified technician check the whole system.

A pilot that went out stays out until a qualified technician lights it. Don't try it yourself, and don't try to fix a regulator, valve or appliance part. Life with a tank, including keeping it from running empty, is in §8-1.