Gas odor spreads from Busan to Ulsan

Residents of Ulsan are getting anxious as there have been a number of reports that people smell gas in some parts of the city, which is the same issue that Busan faced earlier.

According to Ulsan City as well as the Ulsan Fire Department on Monday, they received 47 calls reporting the problem such as: "There's a gas odor and it's very strong," and "This smell gives me a headache." Ulsan received 22 calls in the Onsan-eup and Onyang-eup areas in Ulju County on Friday, 22 calls in the downtown of Ulsan on Saturday, and three calls in the Dong-gu area.

Both Ulsan City and the Ulsan Fire Department dispatched patrol teams to the area where the problem occurred, but they have not found the reason yet. Patrol teams checked for gas leaks and examined gas density in the petrochemical complex but nothing abnormal was detected.

"We sent teams to the reported areas in Dong-gu but did not find the source of the problem. We notified the city gas company," the Ulsan Fire Department stated.

We did not receive any more reports from Aeum-dong and Seonam-dong in the Nam-gu area where most reports were made on Saturday."

Ulsan City plans to keep their eyes on the problem and increase the number of patrol teams.

Earlier on Thursday and Friday in the coastal areas in Busan, a series of reports were made that the area smelled like gas. The Busan City held three emergency meetings with officials from the Busan Fire Department, Busan City Gas and Korea Gas Safety Corporation, but the city has not found the cause.

On Thursday when the reports were made, the Busan city government took samples from four tank trucks that passed the Gwangan Bridge at around 5 p.m. Given that the smell moved from east to west in Busan, the city thought that the vehicles might be the source of the smell. The sample was sent to the Busan Public Health and Environment Research Institute for testing.

In the meantime, as people are posting theories about the smell such as "earthquake precursor" and "abnormality in Kori Nuclear Power Plant" on the Internet and SNS, Busan City became busy with updating the research progress on their Facebook page and answering questions, in order to relieve public anxiety.

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