Crews to work through night to restore gas service in southwest Butte

UPDATE: April 23 at 7:35 p.m.

NorthWestern Energy said crews continue to go door to door in southwest Butte after a natural gas outage that started at about 7:30 a.m. and affected about 670 customers.

The company reported the outage hit customers mainly west of Rowe Road.

NorthWestern Energy said crews would keep working through the night as customers need to be home for crews to relight pilot lights.

Affected customers who were comfortable with crews knocking after 10:30 p.m. could call 888-467-2669 to give authorization. Otherwise, crews are set to return after 7 a.m. April 24.

Responding employees are wearing clearly marked company gear.

BUTTE, Mont. – Some residents in southwest Butte will have their natural gas meters shut off following a natural gas outage that affected around 670 NorthWestern Energy customers.

NorthWestern Energy announced the gas meter closures on Thursday around five hours after the natural gas outage occurred.

“NorthWestern Energy crews are in the area turning off individual natural gas meters so the natural gas line serving these customers can be safely returned to service,” the energy company announced around noon on Thursday.

The company said employees responding to the outage would be wearing clearly logoed NorthWestern Energy gear. It said that once the pipeline is restored, crews would go door-to-door to relight pilot lights for applications affected by the outage.

“NorthWestern Energy is working to restore natural gas service as quickly as possible, safely,” the company wrote in its announcement.

It added that people who smell natural gas should leave the area immediately, call 911 and should avoid creating sparks or doing things that could ignite the gas.

ORIGINAL COVERAGE: April 23 at 2:00 p.m.