Gas Leak Calls in Baldwin County on The Rise

EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

PART ONE

By Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News

January 22, 2025

FOLEY, Ala. At some point, many of us have smelled what we believed to be a gas leak either coming from our own house or business, near our home or in our neighborhood.

Here in Baldwin County, those calls come frequently. More than eighty calls were made to 911 and local utility companies during 2025.
And often they were reported in the same areas.

I began tracking these types of calls in early 2025 after hearing that certain neighborhoods reported higher numbers of possible gas leaks compared to the rest of the county.

It’s important to understand which gases are in our everyday environment, how to detect them and what to do about what we’re smelling.

There are many varieties and types of gases, most are odorless and deadly.
The most common gases that cause the most alarms in residential neighborhoods are:

Methane, which is Flammable, and can displace oxygen and can poison a person. It’s produced through decaying plants, vegetation, decaying animals or humans.

Radon, a naturally occurring, invisible, odorless, radioactive gas from uranium in soil and rocks that seeps into buildings, posing a significant lung cancer risk, especially with long-term exposure.
It is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, building up indoors through foundation cracks and getting trapped, damaging lung tissue over time.

In most states, before a house can be sold, a Radon test must be done by a certified expert.

Carbon Monoxide is a colorless, practically odorless, and tasteless gas or liquid. It results from incomplete oxidation of carbon in combustion. In homes and businesses that use gas as a heating source or for gas fireplaces or cooking stoves, this gas can sometimes trigger an emergency when dangerous, elevated levels of carbon monoxide are present.
Because of this C02 alarms are recommended to be at each level of the dwelling.

The most common types of gases used in residential and commercial structures are Natural Gas and Propane.

Both have odors added to them because they are naturally odorless and colorless; chemicals like mercaptans (rotten egg smell) are added for safety to detect dangerous leaks.

As of 2025, the estimated population of Baldwin County was around 270,000.
But during 2025, the calls about possible gas leaks weren’t spread out evenly.
In fact, just four areas reported most of these calls.

Were all or most of these emergency calls true leaks or just someone’s imagination?
What caused certain areas to think that there were gas leaks, while many of the areas of Baldwin County had few or no calls at all?

I had my suspicions but I wanted to get the experts involved which by the way was a task in itself since there are numerous utility companies who often provide services outside of their city and even crisscross through the county including Riviera Utilities, North Baldwin Utilities, Daphne and Fairhope Utilities, South Alabama Gas, and others and let’s not forget the various companies that also provide propane gas in Baldwin and Mobile Counties.

As of 2024, approximately 25.2 % of Alabamians use natural gas to heat their homes and businesses. That equates to around 800,000 homes and more than 70,000 businesses.
Thousands of others use propane gas to heat and cook with.

Gas and utility experts and fire officials say that using gas is very safe, but that unnoticed leaks can have devastating consequences.
Fire investigators call gas, the silent killer.

Across the United States, nearly three million miles of pipelines are pumping the natural gas that makes its way into our homes. But that critical infrastructure comes with incredible risks.

In the past 12 years gas leaks have led to explosions that have claimed dozens of lives, injured hundreds of people and wiped entire neighborhoods off the map, federal data shows.

And it often happens with no warning, with a silent threat beneath the ground suddenly igniting.

Critics of the natural gas system also believe leaks and incidents go under documented. That’s because only certain leaks and incidents must be reported to the federal government, which doesn’t require immediate disclosure to residents.

In March of 2024, investigators ruled that a home explosion in Oak Grove, Alabama was “likely” caused by the ignition of methane, a gas produced in the mining of coal in the central part of the state.

In late October 2016, a major explosion and fire on the Colonial Pipeline in Shelby County, Alabama, tragically killed one contract worker, Anthony Willingham, and severely burned several others, halting gas flow and contributing to regional shortages. The incident occurred when an excavation crew struck the line, causing gasoline to ignite, leading to significant fires and shutdowns affecting gas supply across the Southeast.

In March 2025, another major gas explosion and fire in Centreville, Alabama at a propane business was set off while working on a tank.
The Brent Volunteer Fire Department responded to the fire that erupted at AmeriGas located at 331 Belcher Street.
When firefighters arrived, they found that a propane tank had exploded causing a fire.

Investigators said that a worker was removing residual propane gas from a tank when the fire started. The worker quickly alerted employees on site, and the area was evacuated with no injuries reported.

More than 100 propane tanks exploded in the fire, causing some tanks to be lofted across the facility’s parking lot.

And in 2025, two contracted workers performing work in a sewer line for the City of Mobile died because of not having the proper safety equipment while working 20-30 feet underground and both succumbed from exposure to methane gas.

Baldwin County has experienced gas leaks and potential dangers during the past few years but the quick actions of residents, fire departments and utility companies working together are the primary reasons why the leaks didn’t go undetected and why there were no explosions or fires.

Gas leaks themselves can quickly be repaired most of the time without any danger to the public if they are detected quickly and before a substantial amount of gas has leaked into an area unnoticed.

In part two of my investigation, I’ll disclose the four areas of Baldwin County that received the most reports of gas leaks, the city that received 15 reports of gas leaks in one day and what the experts say are the reasons for the sudden increase in the calls to 911 about gas leaks.

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