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Erie, Colorado natural gas outage updates

? Nov. 12, 5 p.m. MST - Our customers are extremely important to us, and we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who assisted us in this effort — the City of Erie, the Black Hills Energy technicians who traveled from across Colorado and Nebraska to help serve, and our customers and community who extended us their patience and support. 

If you have any additional questions or need assistance, please contact us at 888-890-5554.

? Nov. 12, 2:45 p.m. MST - We’re happy to share that Black Hills Energy crews have completed restoration to all but a handful of natural gas customers who were impacted by the service interruption in the Morgan Hill and Parkland Estates neighborhoods in Erie. Multiple attempts have been made to reach every customer impacted and we have left door tags on each residence with instructions to call Black Hills Energy to schedule relight service. If your service has not yet been reinstated, please call 888-890-5554 and a technician will be scheduled to return to turn on your meter, relight your gas appliances and conduct a safety inspection. Thank you for your patience.

? Nov. 12, 12:40 p.m. MST - If you’re not home when our technicians arrive to relight your service, a door tag will be left with instructions to call us at 888-890-5554 to schedule a relight. Customers should not attempt to relight their appliances on their own.

Thank you for your continued patience as we work as quickly as possible to safely restore service. As a reminder, free space heaters are still available, one per family, at Soaring Heights PK-8 at 3280 County Road 5 in Erie. Our team will be on site from until 1 p.m. today if you would like to stop by. 

? Nov. 12, 10:41 a.m. MST - Our crews are continuing to go door to door to safely restore gas service at customers’ homes. When we arrive at your home, please note that someone over 18 years of age must be home to allow our technicians inside the home. During the relight service, our technicians will turn on your meter, conduct a safety check and relight each of your natural gas appliances. If you are not at home when we come by, we will leave a door tag with instructions to call us at 888-890-5554 to schedule relight service.

As of last night, we have restored gas service to 70% of customers impacted by this outage. With extra crews working in the neighborhood, please be mindful of added vehicle traffic in the area. Safety is our top priority, and we ask that you keep a safe distance from our service vehicles. Thank you for your continued patience as we work as quickly as possible to safely restore service. As a reminder, free space heaters are still available, one per family, at Soaring Heights PK-8 at 3280 County Road 5 in Erie. Our team will be on site from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. today if you would like to stop by.

? Nov. 12, 8:25 a.m. MST - We’re continuing our efforts to restore services, if you’ve received a door tag, please call us at 888-890-5554 to schedule service with a technician to relight your home. Your safety is our first priority. Don’t attempt to relight your pilot light, fix or adjust any gas line or related equipment — our trained technicians will take care of that.

?Nov. 12, 7:30 a.m. MST - After working through the night to restore service, our technicians are back in the neighborhood, going door to door, turning on gas meters, conducting safety checks and relighting natural gas appliances. The team is making good progress and we appreciate your patience as we continue to work safely and as quickly as possible to restore service. If you received a door tag, indicating we missed you last night, please call us at 888-890-5554 to set up a time to schedule relight service. 

Free space heaters are still available, one per family, at Soaring Heights PK-8 at 3280 County Road 5 in Erie. Our Black Hills Energy team will be on site from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. today if you would like to stop by. 
 

?Nov. 11, 9:45 p.m. MST - This will be our final update this evening until tomorrow morning, November 12. Our crews are continuing to go door to door to restore natural gas service. We have extra personnel in the area, working as quickly as possible this evening to turn on gas meters, conduct safety inspections and relight natural gas appliances. We appreciate your patience. If we missed you, please contact us at 888-890-5554 to schedule relight service.

As a reminder, free electric space heaters are available, one per family. We will resume giving away space heaters at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning at Soaring Heights PK-8 at 3280 County Road 5 in Erie.

?Nov. 11, 6:30 p.m. MST - Our technicians are going door to door to restore natural gas service to customers. When we arrive at your home, we will turn on your gas meter, do a safety check and relight your gas appliances. Please note that someone over 18 years of age must be at home in order for our technicians to restore your service. If you are not at home when we come by, we will leave a door tag with instructions to call us at 888-890-5554 to set up a time to schedule relight service. Customers should not attempt to relight their appliances on their own.

?Nov. 11, 5:15 p.m. MST - For Black Hills Energy customers in the Morgan Hill and Parkland Estates neighborhoods, free electric space heaters are available, one per family, starting tonight from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Soaring Heights PK-8, 3280 County Road 5 in Erie.

Our employees will meet you at your vehicle in the parking lot and provide you with the free space heater.  Please enter the school at the temporary traffic lights and drive to the far west side of the main parking lot.

Space heaters will also be available at Soaring Heights PK-8 on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

?Nov. 11, 4:34 p.m. MST - Technicians have begun going door to door to turn off nearly 379 gas meters in the area. This is step one in the multistep process. After making repairs and repressurizing the system, crews will begin turning on meters, performing safety checks and relighting all pilot lights. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

?Nov. 11, 1:34 p.m. MST - We’re aware of an issue affecting service to natural gas customers in the neighborhoods of Parkland Estates and Morgan Hill in Erie, Colorado. We'll be attempting to contact customers whose service has been impacted.

We’re working with local officials and will provide more information on Facebook and Twitter as available. For non-emergency requests, contact us online here.


Erie Service Disruption - Customer FAQs

What caused this outage?

On Nov. 11, 2022, Black Hills Energy was notified of a loss of pressure to the natural gas system in Erie, Colorado. To safely restore service, our technicians needed to shut off approximately 379 gas meters and test the system.
 

How many customers are impacted in the area?

Approximately 379 residential customers are impacted in the Morgan Hill and Parkland Estates residential areas.


How will Black Hills Energy restore gas service?

The process of bringing customers back on to the system requires several steps. We must first make sure all gas meters are off, then purge the system so it’s ready for the reintroduction of the natural gas supply. After the gas has been shut-off, our technicians will go door to door to turn on meters, do a safety check and relight each customer’s gas appliances.

If your appliance is unsafe to relight, a red tag will be issued until it can be repaired. The relight teams will not be able to repair appliances during the relighting effort. Instead, they will schedule a repair team to return later after most of the community is back online.
 

When will gas service be restored to all customers in the area?

Crews will begin working to restore service to vulnerable customers as soon as possible, after our work on the system has been completed. Our technicians will then go door to door to restore service to all customers. Please note that someone over 18 years of age must be home to allow our technicians inside the home.

If our technicians are not able to connect with a customer to relight appliances, a door tag will be left with instructions to call us at 888-890-5554 to set up a time for service to be restored.

It may take time to restore service to customers we are not able to connect with on Friday, Nov. 11, and may take several days before all houses, including those that are currently unoccupied, are restored.


If a customer is not currently residing in their home, what steps need to be taken to have service restored?

Once the restoration process begins a tag will be left on your door. Please coordinate with someone locally, such as a neighbor or friend, who can alert you to when a door tag has been placed on your door.  At the time, please contact us at 888-890-5554 to set up a time for a technician to visit your home. Someone locally will need to allow our technicians to enter the premises and relight appliances. We are advising property owners and managers of unoccupied residences and commercial properties to take immediate action to guard against frozen pipes by doing some or all of the following:

  1. Ask a neighbor or friend to access the home and turn on cold water faucets to drip and keep pipes from freezing.
  2. Consider turning water off to the residence and flush all pipes to prevent freezing until the owner returns.
  3. If an absentee property owner does not have anyone to check their home, contact a local professional plumber to assist with proper winterization.

For unoccupied properties, Black Hills Energy will schedule appointments to turn gas service back on and relight appliances after service has been restored to occupied residences and businesses.


Should I have smelled gas during the purging process?

During the purging of the system, customers may have smelled a faint odor of gas.  This is normal and expected, and the gas will safely dissipate into the air. The smell is like that of a rotten egg. If you smell the odor of natural gas and it does not quickly dissipate, exit the building quickly and call 911 from a safe distance.
 

How can customers help expedite the relighting process?

Black Hills Energy customers can assist in expediting the relighting efforts by keeping porch lights on and clearing a path and providing access to gas meters. Please restrain pets that may be on the premises. Additionally, it’s required that someone over 18 years of age be present during the relighting process. 


Will customers be notified when Black Hills Energy techs are in their neighborhood?

To restore service to our customers as quickly and safely as possible, our technicians will go door to door to all customer premises to restore service. If they do not connect with the customer, they will leave a door tag with information for customers to call us at 888-890-5554 to set up a time for restoration. Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide a timeframe for when technicians will be in a certain area. We have over 20 technicians in the field going through the affected area street by street, and we are not able to predict when a particular area will be addressed.  


What will technicians do during the relight process?

Technicians will turn on the meter and then perform a variety of safety checks on gas appliances indoors; measuring for gas and carbon monoxide to identify any safety issues. If an appliance is emitting carbon monoxide and poses a safety hazard, the technician is required to red tag the appliance, taking it out of commission until it can be repaired or replaced.

The relight teams will not be able to repair appliance during the relighting effort. Instead, they will schedule a repair team to return later after most of the community is back online, to evaluate and work with homeowners to get appliances repaired or replaced as soon as possible.


Why shouldn’t a customer attempt to relight their own appliances?

Our technicians have specialized equipment that can detect gas and identify safety concerns within the infrastructure and appliances, which is important to the overall safety of our customers and our system. These safety checks are important steps to safely restoring natural gas service.


If we have electric ignition, is it necessary for Black Hills Energy technicians to manually relight the pilot?

No, however we will still need to perform a safety check of the appliances.


Will Black Hills Energy technicians be relighting boilers as well as appliances?

Yes, our technicians will be relighting all gas pilot lights.


What should customers do if they are not home for the relight process?

If a customer is not home when the Black Hills Energy technicians arrive to relight their service, a door tag will be left with instructions to call us at 888-890-5554 to schedule a relight. Customers should not attempt to relight their appliances on their own.

For customers who may be out of the area and whose homes or commercial buildings are not open at this time, please call us to schedule a date and time to restore service.


Will Black Hills Energy repair any appliances?

Depending on the specific situation with the appliance, our technicians will discuss the options and next steps directly with the customer.


Who should customers contact if there are other issues?

Customers can call us at 888-890-5554 if they experience any natural gas service issues or for any non-emergency questions. Customers are asked not to call 911 for non-emergency questions regarding when service will be restored.


Where can additional information and regular updates be found?

For the most current information, please refer to the Black Hills Energy Facebook and Twitter pages, and the website at blackhillsenergy.com/erie-co. For non-emergency requests, contact us online here.

Additional resources