Smell gas in the house? Leave without touching switches

Leave without operating switches or equipment, call 911 and the gas utility from away, and wait for explicit re-entry clearance.

If you suspect natural gas in the house, leave immediately. Take people and pets with you, use the nearest normal exit, and move well away on foot. Do not investigate, search for a shutoff, open an automatic garage door, or use a phone inside. From a safe location, call 911 and the gas utility. Do not go back until emergency responders or the utility say you may.

On the way out, touch as little as possible

Leave lights and switches exactly as they are. Do not turn appliances, thermostats, fans, alarms, or electrical equipment on or off. Do not unplug anything, strike a match, smoke, light a candle, start a vehicle in an attached garage, or press a garage-door remote. PHMSA warns that phones, motors, plugs, switches, and garage-door openers can create an ignition source in a leak area.

Warn other occupants while moving toward the exit, but do not delay to sweep every room. Knock with your hand rather than ringing a doorbell. If someone cannot leave, tell 911 where that person is once you are away from the building. Never re-enter for a pet, wallet, medication, or the utility account number.

What counts as enough reason to leave?

An odor associated with gas is enough. So is hissing or roaring near gas piping or equipment, damaged pipe after construction or an impact, or an unexplained vapor cloud outdoors near a gas line. PHMSA says a suspected pipeline leak can present by sound ranging from quiet hissing to a loud roar, an unusual gaseous or petroleum odor, or visible vapor, bubbling, or disturbed soil outdoors.

Do not stay inside to decide whether the smell is strong enough. Do not assume another odor explains it. And do not use a combustible-gas meter bought for household use as permission to remain. My view: a false alarm costs time; investigating a real leak can cost the exit.

Make the calls from away

Once everyone is at a safe location, call 911. Give the street address, where the odor or sound was noticed, whether anyone may still be inside, whether there is fire or damaged piping, and whether work was recently done near a gas line. Then call the gas utility's emergency number if the dispatcher has not already coordinated it.

PHMSA's public guidance says to call 911 from a safe location and then notify the pipeline company or local emergency number if known. Stay available for questions, but remain outside the area responders set. Keep arriving neighbors and contractors back. Do not drive through a visible vapor cloud or back toward the building.

Do not turn this into a shutoff exercise

A meter valve may look simple, but walking toward a suspected leak, handling metal near the meter, or turning the wrong valve is not a sound household response. Leave isolation to the fire department or utility. If gas is burning, do not try to extinguish it; PHMSA explicitly warns the public not to attempt that. Responders must control the fuel and the fire together.

Opening windows is not part of the evacuation. It keeps you in the building, may require operating hardware, and does not establish that the atmosphere is safe. The same rule applies to shutting down a furnace or checking whether a burner went out. Get out.

Re-entry and restart belong to the utility

Wait for an explicit all-clear from the authority handling the incident. A fading odor, silent alarm, open door, or neighbor going inside is not clearance. If service was shut off, do not restore it yourself. Ask who must repair the defect, who will test the system, and who may relight or restart each appliance.

After permission to return, write down the utility incident number, findings, equipment placed out of service, required repairs, and restart status. Preserve photos of visible damage only after the area is cleared. If responders identify damaged heating or venting equipment, connect the service record to the HVAC diagnosis guide. Review the household escape route later, not during the odor.