Why are people so helpless? 😓

I made a post this morning about a gas leak. We fixed it so it's all fine, but I literally still get comments that fire departments need to be contacted and what not. I never thought about it when I lived in Denmark, because nothing ever broke lol. In Ukraine we live in old soviet buildings, so naturally, everything breaks all the time, so it's beyond ridiculous to call a fire department whenever someone has a gas leak. The valve was what was leaking, so we just needed to buy and install a new one. The reason we add a smell to gas is so that we notice it. When something explodes, it's usually because no one's home in the apartment for days. It's not hard to install a new valve, the fact that even men in modern countries panic and call authorities over something small like this baffles me. It literally takes 10 minutes to do, it's very easy, and I assume you people also have gas meters, so you can check if the leak has stopped or not. Everyone needs to calm down, and also maybe learn how to do basic repairs?

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MsSwan

It's great that you're so knowledgeable and handy, but not everyone is. We're not encouraged to fix things that can potentially be hazardous. There's a lot of idiots that don't know what they're doing and it's better to have professionals look at it.

Better safe than sorry.

SW-User

@MsSwan In every house my wife and I have lived in there has been some issue that needed to be fixed, resulting from earlier residents taking a DIY approach and messing it up.

SW-User

@MsSwan I don't know why people think I am knowledgeable or handy, it's not true. You too can screw one piece of metal onto another, I don't understand why anyone would think it's difficult. We all have hands. The mentality I see here is some sort of learned helplessness.

MsSwan

@SW-User Yes, I can screw a piece of metal onto another, but how do I know that's all that needs to be done. I'm not familiar with gas valves or anything else having to do with gas. No one ever taught me so why would I try to figure it out myself? Gas is flammable and toxic to breathe, it's not worth fiddling with myself.

SW-User

@MsSwan Well first of all, I'm sure you'd be rational enough to turn the gas off before you fiddle with the valve. You can see the valve, you can screw it off so you can also screw it on, that's how you know. When you screw it on, you should add something to seal it with, you can ask for it in the store where you buy the new valve. It really isn't rocket science, and given that you seem like a bright person, I'm sure you'd think about adding something to seal it, but if not, you'd probably look up a video of someone changing a valve and go "duh" when he adds the stuff anyways. 😄

For some reason people here act as if gas spontaneously combust. 🤣

After you screw it on, look at the gas meter to see the numbers stand still while you're not using gas. If they're still moving, there's obviously still a leak. If you don't have a gas meter then move to a better country. 😎

MsSwan

@SW-User Your right, it's not rocket science, but if you don't know, you don't know. That's all I'm trying to say. 😬

SW-User

@MsSwan Well the guy we bought the valve from told us haha. I also looked up a video to see how they sealed it, but it was just putting some stuff there. We use this weird sort of hair, and some sticky substance. The guy we bought the valve from also gave us a bit of that hair for free, since we needed so little. Like we're not even talking about fixing some old rusty valve, just buying a new one, so yeah. 😅

MsSwan

@SW-User Hair??? wtf

SW-User

@MsSwan It's called something like "old lady's hair" lmao, I have no idea what it's called in English! 🤣