What's that smell? Not gas, say PGW, PECO

Residents in a swath of territory stretching from Germantown through Northeast Philadelphia into lower Bucks County thought they smelled natural gas Sunday.

They didn't, said both PGW and Peco, which supply gas to the region and which investigated many calls from worried residents.

Both concluded what PGW spokeswoman Melanie McCottry called a "foreign odor" did not originate with either firm.

What the scent was and where it came from remained a mystery.

Deb Yemenijian, a spokeswoman for Peco, which received about 100 calls, said "the last detection" was around 4 p.m. "All of our customers are safe," she said.

- Stacey Burling