The temperature in Aspen, Colorado, will drop to 2 degrees Tuesday night.
The FBI has joined a criminal investigation into what police said appears to be a “deliberate attack” on gas service lines in Aspen, Colorado, which left thousands of residents and businesses without heat as temperatures in the mecca of skiing plummeted to almost zero degrees.
Work crews are working to restore gas service and local authorities handed over electric heaters to residents still without heat on Tuesday, as a storm is expected to reach up to 8 inches of snow in the Rocky Mountain region. this week. Temperatures are expected to drop to 2 degrees in Aspen on Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
Aspen police said the allegedly coordinated acts of vandalism occurred Saturday night at three separate gas stations at Black Hills Energy, one in Aspen and two in the rest of Pitkin County.
At one of the target sites, police said they found the words “Earth First” scratched and investigators were studying whether the self-described “radical environmental group” First! was involved.
ABC News emails on the group’s website for comments were not returned.
Aspen deputy police chief Bill Linn told reporters the saboteurs appeared to “have some familiarity” with the natural gas system.
“They manipulated the flow lines. They turned off the gas lines, ”Linn said.
Linn said the physical evidence recovered from the vandalism scenes included footprints left in the snow. He said there were no security cameras at the three sites that were affected.
The FBI, which has a critical infrastructure protection unit, is assisting in the investigation, Linn said.
Black Hills Energy officials said about 3,500 customers were affected by the gas crash and crews had to go to each natural gas meter to turn them off manually and turn the pilot lights back on. Officials said work would continue on Tuesday, but it was unclear how long it would take to restore gas service to everyone.
Linn said the police department distributed about 6,000 portable heaters to residents.
He added that many businesses, including restaurants and hotels, had to close due to the loss of gasoline.
“It’s almost, for me, an act of terrorism,” Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper, who lost heat to her home due to vandalism, told The Aspen Times. “It’s trying to destroy a mountain community in the middle of the holiday season. It wasn’t a national gas mistake. It was a deliberate act. Someone wants to make a statement of some kind.”