January 8, 2007
Maple Syrup Was Better: Smell of Gas Covers NYC
We don't know what's up with the crazy gas smell. The reports we've read had the location at 34th Street and 5th-7th-8th Avenues in Manhattan, but our readers are smelling it from the Upper West Side to downtown. WNBC reports that the smell is so strong on the 6th floor of 30 Rockefeller Center, "people are leaving the building." NY1 says the smell is strong around Herald Square and in NY1's neighborhood in Chelsea."
So far, Con Ed and the city's Office of Emergency Management are supposedly checking it out. There are also a lot of NYPD sirens - perhaps checking out the possible leak and trying to calm freaking-out New Yorkers?
We'll keep updating this story. Tell us where you're smelling it. Is it in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island - or just Manhattan? And we thought all we'd have to deal with today was a case of the Mondays!
Update: ABC and Fox are reporting that the smell may have originated with a large gas leak at Bleecker and West 4th. But Fox is now saying the location may be at 7th and 13th, near St. Vincents. So things are still confused.
Update: ConEd is reporting no leaks anywhere in the system-- so it's a real mystery!
Update: a tipster called to say St. Vincents is being evacuated, and PATH trains are shut down into the city. So the smell is definitely strongest right now in the Village. Action seems to be centered at Bleecker and West 12th.
Update: Bloomberg is saying there was a gas leak on Bleecker and 6th, but much too small to be responsible for something like this. Various agencies are investigating, but the city's air quality sensors haven't picked up anything unusual. Now he's saying not to worry about it too much, but to open windows if the smell is particularly bad: "The one thing we are very confident of is that it's not dangerous."
A reporter asked how smelling gas is not dangerous. Mayor Bloomberg said that when gas enters the air, it "diversifies": "The amount of the chemical that you can smell is so minute... it's not dangerous." He adds that he didn't smell it at his home on the Upper East Side and didn't smell it at City Hall; also, all the PATH service is back to normal. OEM Commissioner Bruno says that there were 27 calls related to the gas smell, just people were feeling ill but no one was transported to the hospital.
Update: As the city says that the air is safe, it's not to late to enjoy how agencies are reacting. Reader Sacha Lecca sent us these great photographs of Con Ed testing the air and manholes in the West Village.
The news vans were on the scene, too, but it's hard for TV cameras to capture a gas leak when people aren't collapsing in the street (or dead birds on the street, as they are in Austin). Still, NY1's Roger Clark did a good job when he just said, "Uggh."
What kind of air monitor doodad is this? And where can we buy one, because the iron lung we've been looking into might take a while to ship.
Photographs by Sacha Lecca
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Oh that's what that smell on the #1 was-kinda burning rubbery from about 72nd to 23rd. It was particularly rank at 50th but then again, most corporate types work there so I figured it must be them.
smelled it this morning even way up where I am in washington heights. & the times square subway station reeked of it.
After dealing with a stalled F train at York St. and having to backtrack to Jay St. to take the A into Manhattan, I smelled it all the way to Times Sq. on the A train. Seems it's permeating the subway system too.
My office building just made an announcement about it.. they're "exhausting" the smell and luckily there's no trace of it inside the building anymore, but it's strong outside in Times Sq.
Oh thank god. I thought I was losing my mind. It's *very* strong around 53th and 7th.
Smelt it at Times Sq station this morning at 42nd and 8th. Was wondering what would be worse, a gas leak in downtown or having a stroke.
According to the management of my office building, the source of the smell was a gas leak on West 10th Street, and has now been fixed.
I have no idea how they know this. Hundreds of people are just standing outside the buildings on 6th Ave in the 40s/50s afraid to go in.
i noticed a strong smell of burning rubber this morning on the subway. i started noticing it around the rockefeller center stop on the F line and kept smelling it on the A/C/E downtown platform at W4th. i didnt notice it above ground though.
Smelled on the F train from about 14th or 23rd st up to Rockefeller Ctr. Very strong at 45th st and 6th ave
i'm at 26th & 8th; our building was evacuated and now is open again. smell of gas remains, however. heard from maintenance guy it was a gas leak at 54th.
It's pretty strong at 53rd and 6th. Security in my building is freaking out.
CNN had a breaking report about it also. Nobody knows what it is. The building where I work has closed any vents that would allow outside air into the building, as a precaution.
We are smelling it on 21st street and 7th ave.
Could just be a lot of buildings turning on their oil heat, we smelled gas in our apartment last night and determined it was most likely the heat coming on... we still slept with the window open though. :)
I can smell it, but not strongly, at 120th St & Riverside.
It's all over my building on w. 14th
i smelled it at 59th and Park. very strong.
We're smelling it up around the Met at 86th and 5th ave.
Definitely smelling it up here at 123rd & Riverside. Building mgmt just announced that they were putting the fans on overdrive, but it's stronger than it was while I was in the subway.
It's really strong in my apartment on Christopher & Bleeker. I haven't left yet, but I suppose it will be strong all over the neighborhood, if the theory that it's a leak on 10th is true.
Very strong at 57th & 7th, on the 40th floor and it's very strong.
Smells like a combination of tar, burning rubber and gas. It's smelling mighty tasty here at 27th and 5th. ugh.
Could smell it was down in the streets and subway stations by my office bldg. near Hudson and Houston. Security just made an announcement that the smell's gone and we can open our windows now. Lotsa sirens round here.
I work at 2 Penn Plaza, just over Penn Station, and I could smell it in the station and now in the building as well. It's pretty funky.
We're smelling it at the AllianceBernstein building on 55th and 6th. They told us it's some sort of "gas leak from outside" and that we're not supposed to worry. It's pretty strong here though.
On PLJ, which broadcasts from 2 Penn Plaza, they are saying its a gas leak in Jersey City that is blowing this way...
I smelled gas yesterday evening (UWS, 70th street)..not sure if is related.
I smelled it at the West 4th Street Station. It was fairly strong there, too.
smell is stong at 28th and 7th Ave.
our building is evacuated.
Just got a call: They are evacuating stores on 34th street off of Broadway. No smell at 2rd and Park Ave. South...
Very strong in our building on 110 Fifth Avenue (16th)
Is it better to stay inside with closed windows, or leave your apartment for an open space in these situations?
It's mind-numbingly bad on 21st street, between 6th and 7th.
Help!
I'm smelling it very strongly at Perry and Bleeker. Oh, I just heard on CNN that the leak is at 4th and Bleeker.
I'm in Jersey City NJ, and we can smell it here.
10th Street... maybe true. Was VERY strong on 11th btwen 6th/7th, and came up very fast... one minute nothing, the next very heavy. This was around 8:50 or so.
Just got a call: They are evacuating stores on 34th street off of Broadway. No smell at 23rd and Park Ave. South...
The gas smell is strong here in Jersey City.
Smells less like natural gas and more like gasoline, kinda like that smell when you're filling your car. Here at the Time & Life building (50th and 6th) we were evacuated, then we stood around on the sidewalk for a while, and then we were told to go back inside. You know, the typical meaningless movement that makes it look like someone's in charge and doing something.
NJ Transit email alert: "Due to a natural gas leak in lower Manhattan, NJT will cross-honor PATH 33rd St. Line customers at Newark, Secaucus and NY Penn."
I have just been informed that the gas smell has disappreaded from Rock Center, but they still don't know where is came from. Still smellling it though ;(
Strong smell on 43/44th floors of 30 Rockefeller Center.
Really strong at 9.10am when i got out of the subway at 23rd on the R and all around Madison Square Park.
It's all over Chelsea. I walked to work from Ninth Avenue and 23rd Street to Fifth Avenue and 17th Street, and it never let up. It is also permeating my offices. It's making me sick.
I'm on 50th and 6th and the smell is pretty bad. Friends everywhere smell it East to West. It's also in jersey; mayor says its nothing but who can trust that... pretty scary.
Stinks in 47th & Park. Got word that there's a gas leak at the 39th street Con Ed plant.
building in midtown:
The FDNY has confirmed a gas leak at 39th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. Crews have been dispatched to repair the problem. Property Operations has instructed all building managers to shut down external air intakes.
There is no cause for concern and no need to evacuate any of the Firm's buildings at this time. We will keep all employees updated as we receive additional information.
the government is recommending duct tape for the windows...
It was incredibly strong when I got off the D train at Bryant Park around 9am.
We can smell it on East 53rd - our fire warden announced, "um, we're lookin' into it."
I work at 111 Eighth Ave (~15 St) and we were told that the smell is coming from NJ (it seems the moniker of it being the armpit of America is more justified than ever)... Our building security is not freaking out and we have not evacuated into the street... Why would anyone think that helps anyways?
57th Street Station F Line is very strong as soon as you get off the train. The smeel seemed to let up as I left the station.
I didn't smell anything at 57/Lex this morning around 8. Haven't been outside since then, though.
Perhaps I shouldve skipped Taco Bell Last night.
Sorry guys.
Came out of the V train stop at 5th Ave and 53rd St and was greeted by VERY strong natural gas smell at 9:15 am this morning.
Our building manager just stopped by and claimed it's coming from 35th and Bway...(we're at 31st and 6th)
smelled ity on 36th between 9th & 10th. thought i was losing it - big crowds outside their buildings all along 34th.
I didn't notice it at all this morning on the train and I don't smell it now on the 14th floor of 10 Rock Center...My window's not airtight, either. No one in my office can smell it.
this happened a few years ago and then it was a tanker carrying the "smell" that is added to gas for safety - t-butyl mercaptan
could be the same this time
It was nauseatingly strong around 9:15 in and around my workplace, which is on the corner of Hudson and West Houston streets, and the high school on Clarkson Street was briefly evacuated. It now seems to be dissipating slightly.
does anyone have any duct tape I can borrow?
please?
Well, it ate my first comment but...
I didn't notice it at all this morning, and still don't smell it (inside) at 10 Rock Center (14th floor). No one here can smell anything.
The smell is strong as hell down here at FIT on 27th and 7th. Its nauseating on the street and the smell lingers like a fog in the hallways at work.
No evacuation here yet.
It was really strong in the underground tunnel between the L train and the Red Line at 6th ave.
I am at 50th and B'way, we just got am email saying that: gas leak has been detected around the midtown area; we have temporarily shut down our supply fans to prevent the gas from entering the building.
The high school on 33rd and Park has been evacuated, though outside the smell is weak. Present, but weak.
downtown austin is closed because of a gas killing birds and sickening police:
http://austinist.com/archives/2007/01/08/breaking_downtown_shutdown_dead_birds_sick_cops.php
my office in hudson square reeks.
hmm.. i'm on 53rd and lexington andi cant smell nothing
Is anyone else getting really sleeeepy?
They stopped my path train at Chrisopher St and made us all get out. Didn't really smell it until I got to work at 28th & Madison, where's it's really strong in the elvator shafts.
Why is it that people that work and live on the street can't spell it: Bleecker.