Feeling Gassy

My dad and uncle used to own the house my great-grandfather lived in, where my grandmother grew up, in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It’s a beautiful old colonial home, but it’s been used as office space for many years because it’s located in what is now a commercial section of town. My uncle lived in it for a few years, then used it as the office space for his civil engineering company, Chambers Associates. When his firm outgrew the space, it was rented it out.

I spent time there not only when it was my uncle’s home but also his office. Since I knew freakishly early that I wanted to be an architect, he kindly hired me to work for him as a draftsperson for four summers. Just for a few weeks when I was in high school, then lengthening to a few months when I was in college. I used to joke that when I became a licensed architect I could come work for him again, but I’d need to rename the company Chambers and Uncle.

The property had a little pump house over the well, which luckily was a stand-alone structure away from the main house because one day there was an explosion in it, but just a little one, which is the best kind of unplanned explosion to have, I think. The renters heard a loud bang and when they investigated, determined something bad had occurred in the pump house, with its blown open doors being the big tell. The fire department came, but there was no sign of smoke or a fire and they left without figuring out what exactly had happened.

Later that day there was another, much larger explosion. This time, instead of blowing the doors open, it blew the doors OFF and the pump house was shifted from its foundation. Speaking as an architect, I believe the technical term for the overall condition of the structure was “trashed.” This seemed like a development that warranted further investigation so back came the fire department.

It turned out the gas station across the street accidentally leaked 15,000 gallons of gas. That of course worked its way into the groundwater. When the gas contaminated water met up with a spark from the well pump turning on – KA-BOOM! Luckily all of the neighbors were on municipal water so didn’t have the problems my uncle did, but some people had to move out due to the fumes. Smokers, I assume.