Gas Outage Means No Cooking Or Hot Water For Apartment Residents

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Families living in a North Oak Cliff Apartment community have no gas for heating water or cooking, and it's been that way for days.

Some tenants at the Virginia Manor Apartments, near Fort Worth Avenue and Hampton, said they smelled gas a week ago, and they were right. A major gas leak has been confirmed, but residents want to know why service still hasn't been restored.

Gas valves for home heating or stove cooking were capped and turned off in every unit. Tenants, like Irene Hernandez, say they can't take a hot bath as a result.

Officials with Atmos Energy say small leaks in the gas line were found when tenants first reported the smell. But the major part of the repair is the property owner's responsibility, and that's the work that was underway Thursday afternoon.

Hernandez, and others at Virginia Manor, say they feel unsafe, because no one is telling them anything. "All we've been hearing is from neighbor's. I called the office -- got a voicemail. Others have called, they don't know what's going on. We feel we're getting the runaround, because nobody knows what's going on."

The repair work will likely take days. Until then, the gas remains off.

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