Southfield woman: Consumers Energy worker used rag to stop gas leak at her home

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Yvonne Saffold has lived in her Southfield home for about five years.

She said she knew something was wrong one night last month when she returned home from dinner and smelled natural gas.

"I didn't know anything about it until my husband told me," she said.

She called Consumers Energy and, she said, they quickly responded.

"Thirty minutes later somebody was out. He said there is definitely a gas leak outside because he checked the inside and everything was under 1 percent," she said.

However, she said the technician couldn't fix the leaky pipe because it was connected to the inside of her house. He said someone else was responsible for that type of work. When the worker left, Saffold couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"The end of an undershirt, I don't know what that is," she said.

Saffold said he used a rag to patch the leaky pipe, and he left it there. That was the first week of April.

"I want the gas leak stopped," said Saffold.

Saffold said she has called the gas company several times and the customer service representatives wouldn't let her speak to a supervisor. It wasn't until Local 4 became involved on Wednesday that the problem was resolved. Consumer Energy responded responded within an hour of Local 4's call.

"I hate to do this, but this is the only way I am going to get it fixed," said Saffold.

A Consumers Energy spokesperson said it is not standard protocol to patch natural gas leaks with rags. They said they will be investigating exactly what happened and why.


About the Author:

You can watch Kimberly Gill weekdays anchoring Local 4 News at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. and streaming live at 10 p.m. on Local 4+. She's an award-winning journalist who finally called Detroit home in 2014. Kim has won Regional Emmy Awards, and was part of the team that won the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast in 2022.