This is the one article on this site we hope you read before you need it rather than during.
Natural gas has no smell of its own. The distinctive rotten-egg odour is added deliberately, at a concentration chosen so people notice a leak well before it becomes dangerous. If you can smell it, the system is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
What to do, in order
Leave the building. Do not investigate. Do not try to find the source. Take everyone with you, including pets, and go outside and away.
Do not touch anything electrical on the way out. Not a light switch, not a thermostat, not a garage door opener, not an appliance. Do not unplug anything. Switches make a small spark, and that is the thing you are avoiding.
Do not use your phone inside the building. Call from outside, well away.
Do not light anything. No matches, no lighters, no candles.
Do not start a vehicle in an attached garage.
Open a door on the way out if it is directly on your path, but do not go around opening windows. Getting out matters more than ventilating, and time spent inside is the risk.
Once outside and clear, call FortisBC's emergency line. They operate around the clock and they respond to gas emergencies. The number is on your gas bill and on their website — check it now and put it in your phone, because looking it up while standing in the street is not the moment.
If anyone feels unwell, or the smell is strong, call 911.
Do not go back in until the utility or emergency services tell you it is safe.
Why the electrical instruction matters most
People reach for a light switch by reflex, especially at night. It is the single most dangerous thing you can do in a room with a gas leak, and it is entirely instinctive.
It is worth saying out loud to everyone in your household at some point, particularly children and anyone staying with you. In the dark, in a hurry, the reflex is very strong.
Carbon monoxide is a different problem
Gas smell means unburned gas is escaping. Carbon monoxide is something else: a product of incomplete combustion, produced by an appliance that is burning fuel badly or venting poorly. It has no smell at all.
That is why carbon monoxide alarms exist and why every home with gas appliances needs working ones, tested regularly, placed as the manufacturer specifies.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure resemble flu — headache, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, confusion. The signal that distinguishes it is pattern: several people or pets in the household unwell together, symptoms that improve when you leave the house and return when you come back.
If a CO alarm sounds, treat it as real. Get everyone out, call 911 or the utility from outside, and do not go back in to check whether it was a false alarm.
Smaller signs worth acting on
Not every gas problem announces itself as a strong smell.
A faint gas smell near an appliance that comes and goes. A burner flame that is yellow or orange rather than blue and steady. Soot marks around an appliance. A pilot light that keeps going out. Excessive condensation on windows near a gas appliance. Dead or dying vegetation in a line above where an underground gas line runs, with no other explanation.
Any of those is worth a call — not an evacuation, but not nothing either.
Detection and repair
Once a leak is confirmed and the situation is safe, finding exactly where it is coming from is a specific job. It involves testing the system section by section, using detection equipment to locate escaping gas, and pressure testing to confirm which parts hold and which do not.
Gas fitting in British Columbia is licensed work, and it is licensed for a reason. This is not a category where a general handyman, or a competent homeowner with tools, should be working. The consequences of getting it wrong are not a leak on the floor.
Prevention
Have gas appliances serviced annually — that servicing includes checking connections and combustion. Test your CO alarms and replace them at the end of their service life. Tell us if you smell something intermittent rather than waiting for it to become constant. And do not modify gas piping yourself, including moving an appliance to a new position.
If you are reading this and there is no emergency, do the useful thing now: find FortisBC's emergency number and save it, and check that your CO alarms work.
Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, New Westminster. 604-865-7979.
Related: Gas leak detection and repair · Gas permits and safety inspections · Gas fireplace installation and service
