BELLE CHASSE, La. —
“It’s just a danger.”
A danger Belle Chasse resident Christian DeLorca fears could become catastrophic.
“We were very terrified to even bring our children home today” DeLorca said.
DeLorca’s fear centers around a gas pipe that sits underneath the catch basin near his driveway.
For months, DeLorca and his neighbors say they’ve smelled gas. This Sunday, he says the stench was so bad, he nearly passed out.
He immediately called Atmos Energy.
“At the time, they told me to clear the area, and they would have somebody out immediately,” DeLorca said.
DeLorca says an employee did arrive two hours later and told him there was an extreme leak.
This week his concerns turned to fear after he saw a story from Dallas about a 12-year-old girl who died in a house explosion. The gas pipe was operated by Atmos Energy.
“We implore them to please get this situation handled immediately,” DeLorca said.
Eyewitness News reached out to Atmos Energy Wednesday. They told us the line was capped off and that they will be out Thursday to repair it.
Thursday, crews were there. Despite crews digging up the land, DeLorca says the odor lingers.
“We could still smell it, especially in the wind,” DeLorca said.
Ann Hayward, Public Affairs Manager at Atmos Energy wants DeLorca and his neighbors to know that they have nothing to fear.
"This particular area where they're doing the work was a little bit more complicated to repair. It required some of our guys to go out there and do some welding and so, to assure the safety of the customers, the line was squeezed off as we call it,” Hayward said.
Eyewitness News also asked Hayward for an explanation on the lingering odor.
"It could be from the guys working on it or, you know, the air kind of heavy right now with all of the dampness. So, you know, there's a number of reasons. But our guys monitor the amount of gas in the air. If there was a danger then they would know it,” Hayward said.
Until the smell is gone, DeLorca remains suspicious about the pipe that still sits in the ground.