sojourner

I went to his apartment yesterday and told him I was calling the gas company to come check on the gas smell in there. I had told him to call on that some time back, but it hit me that with the doors/windows all closed up with the cold weather, this is a more dangerous situation that ever.

So the stove gets red-tagged, but the gas company person shows my son how to turn the gas line (at the back of the stove) on and off!! After the gas company person leaves, I ask my son if he is going to leave the gas line turned off and call the apartment people to get the stove fixed or changed. This loopy son said, in essence, what's the big deal, it's been like this for months and nothing happened. BTW, gas and carbon monoxide was detected coming from this stove.

So I'll be making sure the apartment complex knows about this situation because detachment does not go so far as to stand by while my son puts himself and other tenants in the building in such danger when I could easily do something about it...

So now I breathe slowly, say the slogans, go to extra meetings, read my Bible, pray for continued wisdom...

My dad was alcoholic - he never was this bad except at the very end of his disease - but my ex-husband was that bad. I don't get that part of it...

steve11694

may i suggest you check with local police, city agency, lawyer to see if the problem can be forced fixed. perhaps as c monoxide/gas is a potentially lethal problem, not only for your son but for nearby tenants and you know he has an addiction problem and is not rational you could hopefully get it fixed. would be a shame to lose him from a preventable cause and deny him the chance to find sobriety.

sojourner

I agree. As a coincidence, my brother does this very kind of work for the very same gas company about 3 hours north of there. According to him, once the gas company person leaves, there is very little legal responsibility from anyone - once this stove is red-tagged, it is solely my son's responsibility for any injuries or damage that might happen if he turns it on again. The gas company person turned the stove off, thereby making it a safe situation.

But this loopy son is not responsible enough to be responsible for this. I will drive over to the rental office of this complex today and I will make sure they know that the stove has been red-tagged and also that this son will probably turn the stove on and use it... i will be on top of this like Shirley McLaine in Terms of Endearment when she was making sure the nurses gave her daughter pain medication on time -

Makes me not ever want to live in an apartment complex.