Is it just me?

Energy West official: Scratch-and-sniff cards to blame for gas smell in downtown Great Falls

Reports of a natural gas smell sparked the evacuation of several buildings in downtown Great Falls on Wednesday morning, but it turns out scratch-and-sniff cards were to blame and not a widespread gas leak.

Nick Bohr, general manager at Energy West, said workers at the company were cleaning out some storage areas and discarded several boxes of scratch-and-sniff cards that it sent out to customers in the past to educate them on what natural gas smells like.

“They were expired, and they were old,” Bohr said. “They threw them into the Dumpsters.”

When the cards were picked up by sanitation trucks and crushed, “It was the same as if they had scratched them.”

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20130508/NEWS01/305080010/Energy-West-official-Scratch-sniff-cards-blame-gas-smell-downtown-Great-Falls?nclick_check=1



People stand on the sidewalk in downtown Great Falls after being evacuated due to widespread reports of a natural gas smell in the area.