Sewer gas odors blamed for brief Walmart evacuation
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (July 28, 2025) – Firefighters say they believe it was sewer gas that people were smelling that caused the brief evacuation at Walmart Sunday morning.
Firefighters arrived around 8:30 a.m. to investigate and left after about a half hour.
Fire Captain Matthew Graham says they think sewer gas was entering the building somehow as employees were running the trash compactor.
No natural gas was detected and nobody became ill.
Store maintenance employees were going to try and correct the problem.