Many years ago my wife and I and wo little girls lived in an old small house in Florida. I was taking classes and trying to study for a test when I was getting terribly tired. I got up and went into the kitchen to make coffee and noticed all four stove burners were on unlit. It was an old stove without a pilot. I was suddenly wide awake, closed the burners, and ran three steps into the living room and grabbed up one daughter who had gone to sleep on the rug and put her out on the lawn ran back in got the other daughter who was also asleep and put her out on the lawn, ran back in and got the sleeping dog and took her out and put her on the lawn then took several deep breaths and ran back into the house to open the back door. When I went back out front the kids and dog were waking up. I put them in the car and we drove around for a while. I stopped at an appliance repair shop and asked if the gas man would bring his meter or whatever he used to check for gas. He followed me to the house and said there were traces still but that in another hour it would be safe. I am fortunate in it all n that I do not smell gas. I am sure that some childish fingers had been turning knobs.
That mercaptan is NASTY smelling stuff. It’s pretty amazing you can’t smell it.
Great thinking on your part to protect everyone. I’m glad it all ended so well for you.
I don’t know for sure, but I think these days you can buy alarms that alert for gas. They do for almost everything else.