Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RED BANK: “TENACIOUS’ INSPECTOR CITED

menna-woods-yassin-041019-500x332-6212661Fire inspector Frank Woods, flanked by Mayor Pasquale Menna and Councilman Hazim Yassin, was honored for averting possible catastrophe at an apartment complex. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

A “tenacious” Red Bank employee won recognition from the borough council Wednesday night for efforts that officials said headed off a possible disaster at an apartment complex last month.

Code enforcement official and fire inspector Frank Woods, a 25-year borough employee, was on a routine call to inspect a unit at Madison Commons, on South Street, for a certificate of occupancy on March 18 when he smelled natural gas in the vestibule, according to Fire Marshal Tommy Welsh.

A real estate agent who was present for the inspection didn’t smell gas, and the apartment, which had been vacant for a month or more, turned out to be odor-free. But Woods continued to smell gas in the foyer, Welsh said.

Woods reached out to deputy fire chief Bobby Holiday and requested that he respond with a gas meter. Meantime, Woods checked with other tenants and inspected their units for gas leaks, finding none.

A first-floor resident told him she had smelled an odor for some time, but thought it might be rotting food left behind in the neighboring unit, Woods said. “She was keeping a spray can of air cleaner handy” to combat the smell, he said.

When Holiday arrived, he and Woods rechecked the three apartments with the detector and found no gas, though the common area tested positive. There were no readings in a utility room where a boiler and gas appliances were located, Welsh said.

The two proceeded to a crawl space where they began to get elevated readings of natural gas.

“They wind up crawling around this building until they finally find where the leak was,” Welsh told the audience at the council meeting.

New Jersey Natural Gas was called in, and it found readings of 2,700 parts per million of gas, where levels above 40 are considered unsafe, Woods said. The gas had become trapped in the crawlspace and was seeping through the floorboards, he said.

The source turned out to be a corroded gas supply line below a soggy piece of wood that had been installed in an attempt to deflect a water leak above it, he said.

Subsequent work by a contractor found more than 60 leaks in the supply lines underneath that building, Woods said, and the site’s property management company is reviewing all lines in the project. The affected apartments were briefly evacuated and did not have gas for cooking purposes while repairs were made, he said.

The discovery of the leak, leading to the discovery of more widespread issues, may have prevented an explosion that “could have been horrible for everybody in that complex,” Welsh said.

“Anybody who knows Frank knows he’s a tenacious guy,” he said. Had it not been for Woods’ doggedness, “we might not have known about the leak until we wound up on the news,” he said.

Woods, a lifelong Red Bank resident and former fire chief now in his 31st year as a volunteer fireman, said he “just happened to be lucky that day, finding something,” and credited the fire department, which he said is an under-appreciated for responding to numerous situations that the public never hears about.

“I just want to say to all the residents and business owners: you don’t realize how lucky you are with this volunteer fire department in this town,” he said.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
Partyline
RED TRUCKS AT RED ROCK
A small dishwasher fire at Red Rock Tap and Grill was put out quickly by firefighters overnight, causing minimal damage. Red Bank Fire Depar ...
CREATIVE COVER UP
The windows of Pearl Street Consignment on Monmouth Street were smashed when a driver crashed their car through them injuring an employee la ...
THEY’RE BACK!
Ospreys returned to the skies over Red Bank this week for the first time since they migrated to warmer climes in late fall. With temperature ...
SPRING IS SPRUNG
RED BANK: Spring 2024 arrives on the Greater Red Bank Green with the vernal equinox at 11:06 p.m. Tuesday.
RED BANK’S FINEST – AND NEWEST
Red Bank Police Officer Eliot Ramos was sworn in as the force’s newest patrolman Thursday, and if you’re doing a double take thinkin ...
EASTER EGG MAYHEM AT THE PARK
An errant whistle spurred an unexpectedly early start to the Spring Egg Hunt on Sunday, which had been scheduled to begin at eggsactly 11am ...
PRESEASON DOCKWORK
RED BANK: With winter winding down, marina gets ready for boating season with some dockwork on our beautiful Navesink River.
CORNED BEEF AND DISCO FRIES?
It’s Friday, and smart Lent-observing Leprechauns know the pot of gold at the end of Red Bank’s rainbow is actually the deliciou ...
SURFBOARD DITCHED
It’s a violation of etiquette in surfing to ditch your board.  (it could hit another surfer and hurt them). But someone appears to ha ...
ELSIE, TAKE ME WITH YOU!
Soaked by pouring rain with the temperature hovering in the low 40’s, this sign in the window of Elsie’s Subs on Monmouth Street ...
WALK THIS WAY
PARTYLINE: Before-and-afters of a sidewalk cleanup on West Street.
SOGGY NOTION
RED BANK: Breezeway sculpture captured the mood downtown as heavy rains fell Saturday morning.
HOME DELIVERY
RED BANK: After a subdivision, an instant house rises on a new Catherine Street lot.
COMMUNITY PROFILES
For Black History Month, Red Bank's Community Engagement and Equity Advisory Committee has been running a series of local profiles on Facebo ...
HEARTY FAREWELL FOR HARDY
RED BANK: Council to honor DPU supervisor Rich Hardy, who retired recently after almost 39 years of keeping things running.
HOMEBOUND? READ ON…
RED BANK: Can't get to the public library? It's now offering free delivery and pickups for homebound borough residents.
TAMING A BEAST OF A WEEK
RED BANK: After the second snowfall of the week, a borough family finds the perfect use for it – a Godzilla snow sculpture.
RED BANK: LIBRARY CLOSED, BUT THE HILL’S OPEN
RED BANK: Though the library was closed by a snowstorm, kids got to enjoy the riverfront property's steep slope Tuesday.
LIGHT(HOUSE) MAKEOVER
This year, getting ready for spring means a midwinter makeover for Strollo's Lighthouse in Red Bank.
TODAY: LOCAL PUPPY COMPETES ON ANIMAL PLANET’S “PUPPY BOWL”
Red Bank’s very own rescue puppy, Biscuit, is set to compete in Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl this Sunday, February 11, at 2 PM. Th ...