The temperature in Aspen, Colorado, will drop to 2 degrees on Tuesday evening.
The FBI has joined a criminal investigation into what police say appears to be a “deliberate attack” on gas lines in Aspen, Colorado, which left thousands of residents and businesses without heat when the temperature in the ski mecca dropped to nearly zero degrees. .
Work crews are rushing to restore gas supplies, and local authorities on Tuesday handed out electric space heaters to residents still without heat, as a storm this week will bring up to 20 inches of snow in the Rocky Mountains region. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Aspen will drop to 2 degrees on Tuesday evening.
Aspen police said the apparently coordinated acts of vandalism took place Saturday night at three separate gas pipeline locations in Black Hills Energy, 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-proclaimed “radical environmental group” Earth First! was involved.
Emails from ABC News to the group’s website asking for comment were not returned.
Aspen Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn told reporters the saboteurs appeared to have “some familiarity” with the natural gas system.
‘They messed with power lines. They turned off the gas lines, ”Linn said.
Linn said physical evidence recovered from the scenes of the vandalism included footprints in the snow. He said there were no security cameras in the three sites affected.
The FBI, which has a critical infrastructure security unit, is assisting with the investigation, Linn said.
Black Hills Energy officials said about 3,500 customers were affected by the gas outage and that crews had to go to each natural gas meter to manually shut them off and relight the pilot lights. Officials said work continued on Tuesday, but it was unclear how long it would take for gas service to be restored to everyone.
Linn said police handed out about 6,000 portable space heaters to residents.
He added that numerous businesses, including restaurants and hotels, had to close because of gas cuts.
“It’s almost a terrorist act to me,” Patti Clapper, Pitkin County Commissioner, who lost heat in her home due to the vandalism, told The Aspen Times. “It is trying to destroy a mountain community at the height of the holiday season. This was not a national gas outage. This was a deliberate act. Someone wants to make some statement.”