When an email went out to Heather Gardens residents on Wednesday, it warned about not lighting a match because of a "major gas leak." According to Xcel Energy, that gas leak was minor and repaired and was unrelated to the explosion two days later in a different part of Heather Gardens. That explosion killed resident Carol Ross and destroyed a cluster of townhomes.
The gas leak on Wednesday led Heather Gardens security to send out an email to certain residents.
"There is no scenario under which if we believe there was a danger to life or property, that we would tell somebody to stay put in their home," said Xcel Energy spokesperson Mark Stutz.
Xcel Energy was not involved in crafting that email. 9NEWS also asked Aurora Fire if anyone with the department provided Heather Gardens input before the email was sent, and a spokeswoman was checking but had not replied with an answer as of Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
Even if there was a scenario where a resident would be allowed to stay home, with the caveat that they shouldn't light a match, we wanted to ask Heather Gardens if a mass email was the best way to get that message out.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Heather Gardens homeowners association held a meeting at the community's clubhouse. Heather Gardens hired a public relations firm that notified the news media about 90 minutes before the meeting that it would be limited to association members and not open to the media.
A resident provided 9NEWS with audio of the meeting, which included one resident saying that not everyone in the area of Wednesday's gas leak received that email, and another resident asking about the use of an email to reach many people in a short window of time.
"People look at their email every other day. A lot of people are retired, they are not looking at their email every day, so can there be another concerted effort to think about this as being like a university campus, where we have a reverse 911? Where we can actually reach out to people via phone, to tell them that there are issues and what to do?" asked the resident.
"Yes and thank you. We are actually looking at a reverse 911 or some type of robocall system," said a representative of the community.