On a cold December morning, a customer who lives in New London thanked meter service mechanic Roberto Garcia for responding quickly to a possible gas leak at his home.

While Garcia swiftly ensured that the building was safe, simple calls aren’t always the case when it comes to working with natural gas.

“I’ve been with Eversource for two years now, and while many of the calls are routine, I’ve already responded to several emergencies,” said Garcia.

Garcia, who’s also a resident of New London, is based out of Eversource’s Waterford Area Work Center. He specializes in installing, maintaining and repairing meters that measure natural gas usage for homes and businesses. Sometimes, that work also includes helping to ensure public safety on emergency calls.

“I was actually one of the first people to respond to the church collapse in New London earlier this year,” Garcia said. “Once we were on scene, we discovered that the collapse was not gas related, but we still took safety precautions.”

When there’s an emergency call, crews make every effort to respond as quickly as possible. They don’t have emergency lights or sirens, but still consider themselves first responders. And over the years, they’ve had a nearly perfect record meeting emergency gas response times.

“Once we determined that gas wasn’t the cause of the collapse, we isolated our lines and equipment, and then we worked with the fire department to see how else we could support their response,” said Garcia.