TUSCARAWAS COUNTY, Ohio — People all across Northeast Ohio have been smelling a strong natural gas odor. In Parma, the fire department said it responded to hundreds of calls since Wednesday.
In Strongsville, between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday, it responded to 45 homes in the city who had a natural gas odor. The fire department said it completed meter readings at all 45 homes and thankfully, all were negative.
At the Canal Street Diner in Tuscarawas County, the strong smell also started on Wednesday. Columbia Gas confirmed the smell in many communities was a result of an overabundance of mercaptan, a harmless odorant that makes it easier to detect natural gas.
Mercaptan was added to the gas stream by an upstream supplier.
"We kind of went through the day smelling it, questioning it, and then at about 5 o clock, we were done with it. It was getting too much, you know we were like we need to close down; we need to see what's going on," said restaurant manager Barbie Patterson.
Patterson heard about the smell taking over the community. "I had seen on the 'Best of Bolivar page' that people were smelling it in their homes, so I would get it checked just in case, just in case," said Patterson.
Patterson decided to call the gas company to keep employees and customers safe, "we had Columbia Gas come, and they said that there were a few leaks. And I heard that there was too much odorant in there, and I don't know if we would have been able to smell that without that honestly, I feel like that kind of saved our butts."
Canal Street Diner closed on Thursday so Columbia Gas could fix a gas line behind the grill. The gas company and local fire departments urge families if you feel like you are smelling gas, to make a call still and get everything checked out.
"We were like 'you know what, we need to get this checked out just in case,' and I'm glad we did," said Patterson.
Watch more on the natural gas odor taking over Northeast Ohio in the player below:
RELATED: Natural gas odor in Northeast Ohio caused by an overabundance of odorant, Columbia Gas says
