A gas company is working to restore service to thousands of Colorado customers following vandalism that damaged lines and forced gas closures, leaving residents without heat and hot water.
Conformable a declaration On Monday, from Black Hills Energy’s vice president of operations, Vance Crocker, crews were working to bring more than 3,500 gas meters back to Aspen, a process that “requires several steps.”
“First we have to make sure all the gas meters are off, then we clean the system so that it is ready for the reintroduction of the natural gas source,” Crocker added. “Eventually, our technicians will go from door to door and resume each customer’s gas appliances.”
Conformable NBC’s KUSA affiliate in Denver, Crocker said Monday at a community meeting that the process of restoring the gas lines should begin on Tuesday, with 150 technicians hired to work on the issue and 4,000 heaters distributed during the repairs.
The Aspen Times reported that the city’s gas lines were found damaged, with the name Earth First! written on a single pipe at one of the three vandalized Black Hills Energy sites.
It has not been clear since Monday whether members of the organization were directly involved in the damage, according to the Aspen newspaper.
“They should have been familiar with the system” to carry out the sabotage, Bill Linn, assistant chief of police to Aspen, said Monday.
“It simply came to our notice then. They stopped the gas pipelines, “he continued.
Linn added that the police did not receive any communication from Earth First! in response to damage.
At Monday’s community meeting, Aspen police chief Richard Pryor said a multi-jurisdictional investigation was under way to determine who was behind the vandalism and how they were able to carry it out.
Linn said Monday that the FBI is assisting local detectives in the investigation, as well as state law enforcement officials, according to the Times.
Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper, who was without heat at his home in the Smuggler Mountain area on Monday, called the vandalism “an act of terrorism.”
“They’re trying to destroy a mountain community at the height of the holiday season,” Clapper continued, the Times reported. “It was not a national gas issue. This was an intentional act. “
Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo said Monday he was reluctant to characterize the incident as an attack.
“I know this word has been thrown away a lot,” he said. “It’s not a word I would use,” calling vandalism “an intentional act” to disrupt gas to Aspen.