A Black Hole: Apartment Units and Gas Meter Identification

Responding to an odor of natural gas in a building, especially with a large quantity from even a single apartment gas meter, can be a challenge. Firefighters need critical size-up information, such as:

• the life safety status of occupants
• the size/intensity of the leak
• the location of the leak and control valves
• sources of ignition
• ventilation
• how to quickly isolate the leak source.

In a new, self-sufficient large residential complex such as the one shown below, each apartment unit may have multiple gas appliances (stove, furnace, hot water heater, and dryer). If the source of a leak cannot be quickly isolated at the dwelling unit meters, which are placed randomly among 180 other meters (1), it will result in shutting down the main utility service valve. Now to get the building back to normal operations, the various pilot lights need to be relit in the various apartment units. Simple math gives us the result of 720 relights. What are the firefighter challenges here for a tactical response, and is there a code solution?

• Tactical Procedures for Explosive Gas Alarms
• Tactical Size-Up for Explosive Gas Emergencies
• Natural Gas Emergency Strategy and Tactics
• Training for Natural Gas Emergencies
• Tactical Size-Up of Natural Gas Emergencies

Tactical Response

Tactical response to natural gas (and propane) emergencies has been a gap in both code compliance and firefighter training and remains to this day, causing obvious safety issues to civilians and to firefighter risk reduction (FRR) efforts. We have all been to a zillion odor of gas calls. Most the time, nothing happens because humans can detect even low levels of the odorant, levels like 1 part per million (ppm). As you know, we need 50,000 ppm to hit the lower explosive limit. We get complacent, until one day our luck runs out. Firefighters should take some necessary precautions. Position apparatus down the block from the address; this could be a minor or major gas emergency that could pose a serious threat to both life and property. Conduct a size-up to answer the question.

Is this a minor or major emergency and what do firefighters need to know about these types of emergencies?

• Minor emergencies: Pilot light(s) are out, there’s a leaky union on a gas meter, etc.
• Major emergencies: There is a high-pressure leak in the building interior. There is an underground leak that is migrating to nearby buildings, or there is a major exterior leak that cannot be stopped. In such cases, evacuations must be conducted, and ooccupants in the building(s) or surrounding area who are in potential life-threatening danger must move quickly to a safe distance away.

Training: The picture below is a routine gas leak that very nearly killed two firefighters (2). There is a huge gap in training for response to explosive gases, most commonly natural gas and propane. Simply put, not many fire departments conduct this type of training. 

Code Solution

Currently, at the national code level, the International Fire Code (IFC) Section-312 (2024 Edition) focuses only on external vehicle impact barriers. The International Fuel Gas Code Section-401.7 (2024 Edition) focuses on the pipeline identification (ID) coming off the meter. Neither one addresses the need for a permanent ID marking on the front of the meter, nor does it mandate that an installation of 12 gas meters or greater be in sequential order (Photo-3). This is a “black hole” in the code development process. Public utility companies, the installers, builders, and building owners all say it’s not their job to properly label and install the numerous gas meters in an orderly manner so that firefighters can quickly isolate the apartment unit meter (4).

So What?

Obviously, this present arraignment—consisting of a nonsequential order and disappearing magic marker IDs—can cause a long delay in shutting down the gas service at the meter, if that tactic is necessary, while gas is flowing. This makes firefighters’ life-safety mission all the more challenging. Shutting down the gas flow at the main service valve is always an option to resolve life-safety issues. In wintry weather, this could cause major inconvenience to occupants and result in freezing all the water pipes.

Life safety is our job, not a question of “find and fix.” Without meters appropriately marked in multiple dwellings, guessing which apartment serves is not a good option. Of course this presents firefighters with a problem. If you have a leak in an apartment, which meter do you shut off? Reach out to the public service commission (the regulator of utilities) and local public utility company and have fire inspectors actively work with building owners and installers to get the meters marked with something beyond a permanent marker to quickly identify the meter that serves an apartment unit. Below is a local example to address the gas meter ID concerns discussed here.

To help with FRR efforts, the importance of gathering building intelligence (BI) in your response district, consider yourself “tagged”on these KbyG multiple gas meter concerns. For further assistance on gathering preincident BI, contact Jack at FMJack1948@gmail.com.

REFERENCES

Tactical Response to Natural Gas Emergencies. Jerry Knapp. Fire Engineering Books.

https://fireengineeringbooks.com/books/tactical-response-to-natural-gas-emergencies

Responding to Routine Emergencies. Frank C. Montagna. Fire Engineering Books.

https://fireengineeringbooks.com/books/responding-to-routine-emergencies

High-Rise Buildings: Understanding the Vertical Challenges, Chapter 5 – Building Systems: Jerry Tracy, Jack J. Murphy, James Murtagh

https://fireengineeringbooks.com/books/high-rise-buildings-understanding-the-vertical-challenges

New York City Fire Code (2022 Edition). Chapter 6, “Building Services and Systems”

https://www.nyc.gov/assets/fdny/pdfviewer/viewer.html?file=chapter-6-2022.pdf&section=firecode_2022

International Fire Code (IFC/2021Edition)

https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IFC2021P2

International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC/2021Edition)

https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IFGC2021P2

JACK J. MURPHY, MA, is a retired fire marshal and a former deputy chief of the Leonia (NJ) Fire Department. He is the past chairman of the Fire/Life Safety Directors Association of Greater New York. He is a principal member on the NFPA High-Rise Building Safety Advisory and the 1660 Emergency, Continuity, and Crisis Management: Preparedness, Response, and Recovery committees and a representative on the ICC Fire Code Action Committee, and a representative on the NFFF Vision 20/20 Strategy-5 Codes and Standards Group. He is a co-author of High-Rise Buildings: Understanding the Vertical Challenges. He is a member of the Clarion Fire and Rescue Group Advisory Board and a presenter at FDIC International. He was the recipient of the 2012 Fire Engineering Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award.

JERRY KNAPP is the chief of the Rockland County (NY) Hazmat Team, has a degree in fire protection, is a 48-year veteran firefighter/emergency medical technician (EMT) with the West Haverstraw (NY) Fire Department, and is a former paramedic. He served on the technical panel for the UL residential fire attack study. Knapp is the coauthor of two Fire Engineering books: House Fires and Tactical Response to Explosive Gas Emergencies. He is the author of numerous articles in Fire Engineering and state, national, and international fire service trade journals. He is also the author of the Fire Attack chapter in Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II. He retired from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, where he served as the plans and operations specialist at the Directorate of Emergency Services.

• Codes and Standards: A Matter of Firefighter Risk Reduction and Community Life Safety
• Know Before You Go: You’ve Been Tagged!
• Know Before You Go: New Eyes
• Adopting a Know Before You Go Mentality for Fire Attack