My apartment has suddenly begun to smell like someone’s grilling. Like a weird gassy-burny-chemical smell. It started yesterday and it’s worse today. I have a CO alarm, but I’m afraid I’m somehow being gassed or poisoned. It’s strongest in the kitchen where the vent is. I’m on the fourth floor and obviously nobody is barbecuing in the parking lot in October.
What does this mean? Do my neighbors have a meth lab? Are they using a charcoal grill indoors? Some kind of leak? What could cause this smell?
Call your building management and report a possible gas leak. If they don’t send out emergency maintenance right away, call 911 and tell them you think you have a gas leak. They’ll send the fire department, which has tools to check this sort of thing.
Meantime, hang out outside or on a balcony if you can. Don’t light matches or flames inside. Open your windows as wide as you can stand. Don’t breathe it in more than you have to. And definitely don’t sleep in it!
I called my super soon soon after I posted this and he’s sending someone at eleven, so maybe they’ll get to the bottom of this shortly. The thing is, it doesn’t smell like natural gas (i.e. my stove). It’s not a rotten-eggs smell. It’s more like someone’s using a charcoal grill in the next apartment. Hopefully that’s not actually the case). I don’t know how else to describe it.