Man has a nose for good deed

Some neighbors in the Lakemont area of Bellevue are feeling blessed that someone goes to work really early in the morning.

The worker was Valeriy Palanchuk, 42, who was working at 4 a.m. Monday delivering The Seattle Times.

Palanchuk smelled natural gas but couldn't tell where it was originating. He kept sniffing as he made his delivery rounds and eventually found the leak next to a meter box in the 4400 block of 162nd Court Southeast.

Then he started banging on doors and ringing doorbells to awaken the residents.

Melissa Slater was asleep in her home with her husband and their two children when the banging started.

Slater said she first thought it was a workman arriving for a remodeling project really early, but then found it was Palanchuk, telling them to get out of the house.

"It sounded like a waterfall," she said of the hissing gas leak.

She and her family joined Palanchuk going door-to-door, awakening their neighbors. Everyone on the cul-de-sac congregated on the street, away from the leak. Palanchuk then went to his truck and got an adjustable wrench, which he used to turn off the meter valve.

A 911 call was made, and firefighters arrived, followed by Puget Sound Energy crews, who were able to repair the gas line at the meter.

"He just was awesome," said Slater of Palanchuk. "Had this guy not been there, we can't imagine."

Palanchuk, who has a wife and three children and who lives in Bellevue, said he came to the United States from Russia in 1998 and has a background in technology.

"I can fix almost anything," he said, adding that he studied clocks and watches in Russia and then did two years of study at Renton Technical College.

Besides his morning newspaper deliveries, he works afternoons at the Space Needle.

Lt. Eric Keenan, community-liaison officer with the Bellevue Fire Department, said Palanchuk did far more than most people would have. But he recommended that others not try to shut off gas lines by themselves because there is a danger of explosion unless non-sparking tools are used.

Puget Sound Energy urges customers who smell gas to call the company's 24-hour emergency line at 888-225-5773.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com