East Bay residents report mysterious gas odor

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is looking into a mysterious gas odor that prompted numerous calls from concerned residents in Contra Costa County on Monday morning. Starting around 9 a.m., the utility began fielding calls from the public reporting the smell of natural gas along the Highway 24 and Interstate 680 corridors, said Tamar Sarkissian, a PG&E spokeswoman. Crews were dispatched to each caller’s locations with testing equipment, but found no evidence of natural gas, Sarkissian said. The calls tapered off, she said, with the last reports coming in around 10:30 a.m. Investigators were looking into what could have caused the odor, but it did not appear that a gas leak was the culprit, she said.