Gas leak

Our neighbours reported a smell of gas a week ago. They came with some gadget that tests for gas and chalked the pavement. Then they sat in the van for 2 hours. A few days later they put these barriers up. Yesterday a van came but only one man got out and dug a hole. Then they sat in the van for a while, They’re not here today. If there was a bad gas leak we’d have all been blown up by now when people started their cars.