The temperature in Aspen, Colorado, will drop to 2 degrees on Tuesday night.
The FBI joined a criminal investigation of what the police said was an “intentional attack” on gas service lines in Aspen, Colorado, which left thousands of residents and businesses unheated as temperatures in the ski mecca dropped to almost zero. degree.
Work teams are struggling to restore gas service, and local officials distributed electric heaters to residents still unheated on Tuesday, as a storm is expected to bring up to 20 inches of snow in the Rocky Mountains region this week. Temperatures are expected to drop to 2 degrees in Aspen on Tuesday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
Aspen police said the apparently coordinated acts of vandalism took place on Saturday night at three separate Black Hills Energy pipeline sites, one in Aspen and two elsewhere in Pitkin County.
At one of the targeted sites, police said they found the words “Earth first” scrawled, and investigators were investigating whether the self-described “radical environmental group” Earth First! was involved.
Emails from ABC News to the group’s website seeking comment were not returned.
Aspen’s assistant police chief, Bill Linn, told reporters that the saboteurs appeared to “have some familiarity” with the natural gas system.
“They have tampered with the flow lines. They shut down the gas lines, “said Linn.
Linn said the physical evidence recovered from the vandalism scenes includes footprints left in the snow. He said there were no security cameras in the three locations affected.
The FBI, which has a critical infrastructure protection unit, is helping with the investigation, Linn said.
Black Hills Energy officials said about 3,500 customers were affected by the gas outage, and teams had to go to each natural gas meter to manually turn them off and turn on the pilot lights. Officials said the work continues on Tuesday, but it is unclear how long it will take for the gas service to be restored for everyone.
Linn said the police department was distributing about 6,000 portable heaters to residents.
He added that several companies, including restaurants and hotels, had to close due to gas losses.
“It is almost, for me, an act of terrorism,” said Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper, who lost heat in her home due to vandalism, to The Aspen Times. “It is trying to destroy a community in the mountains at the height of the holiday season. It was not a national gas problem. It was a deliberate act. Someone is trying to make some kind of statement.”