A nose for possible danger

“Superhero Vapour” may be the nickname Miriam Adkins has given her son, but Thomas Brock is pretty laid-back about his sensitive nose that discovered two recent gas leaks.

At age nine, Thomas is very aware of his surrounds and as his mum says, he has an old head on young shoulders.

So when Miriam and Thomas were out walking recently and Thomas said he could smell gas, Miriam agrees now that she should have trusted his nose immediately.

“We were out walking and I told mum I could smell gas,” Thomas said.

They continued walking along O’Dowds Rd but on return to their Normanby St home, Thomas again nagged his mum about the smell of gas.

“He kept saying something’s not right so I listened eventually because he is usually right when he says something is wrong,” she said.

Miriam and Thomas went into their neighbour’s house and alerted him to the leaking gas smell.

A plumber was soon on site, followed by two to three gas company trucks and staff repairing a leaking gas main that had been damaged by tree roots.

And if one sensitive nose alerting authorities was not enough, Thomas came to the fore again while walking to Warragul North Primary School along Normanby St two weeks ago.

“I can smell gas again,” he quickly told his mum.

“This time I knew not to keep walking. We called the gas emergency line and sure enough there was another leak in the pipes.

“He is our unsung hero…we call him Superhero Vapour,” Miriam said.

So how does a nine-year-old know how to pinpoint the smell of gas?

Bunnings is Thomas’ favourite shop, not a toy shop like most nineyear-old boys says his dad Stuart.

Thomas loves going to Bunnings and he associated the smells of leaking gas to smells of portable gas heaters at Bunnings.

Thomas and his parents don’t really know what could have or would have happened had his sensitive nose not detected the Warragul North gas leaks, but they are proud of how alert Thomas was on both occasions.

For Thomas, who loves creating technical Lego contraptions, he thinks he may like to be either a scientist or pro-gamer when he finishes school.

A career relying on an eye for detail and his strong senses is certainly in the making.

Nine-year-old Thomas Brock shows the new patch of concrete footptah replaced after a leaking gas main was fixed when he nagged his mother he could smell gas.