Berkeley resident and UC student Gil Hendricks returned last week from winter break to his apartment which, for unknown reasons, sort of smells vaguely like gas.
“I don’t know. Do you smell that?” Hendricks asked companions as he wandered through the apartment for the first time in weeks. “Is that gas? I can’t really tell.”
While Hendricks admits the implications of a possible gas leak are worrisome, he remains unsure if such a problem actually exists. “Does it always smell like this? I don’t really remember,” Hendricks said, still sniffing around the apartment suspiciously. “This place always smells weird after I’ve been gone for awhile.” Friends, while also unable to conclusively determine whether the faint, untraceable gas-like smell was indeed gas, raised their own concerns about the apartment’s obsolete gas heater. The heater, of a design now illegal to sell in California, has no discernible indoor-to-outdoor venting system, no record of any filter changes, and an unreliable pilot light.
“Nah, that can’t be it,” said Hendricks, successfully stifling his inner seeds of paranoia. Sniffing the air once more, he added, “I can’t really smell it any more. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
