In the summer of 2015, Helen and Timothy Ritenour had just moved to their Porter Ranch “forever home.” Then the gas blowout upended their lives, just two months after their son Christian was born. “We moved here for the schools and this was going to be where we raised our family,” Helen says. “One day there was a strong gas smell and my initial assumption was that it was caused by big trucks driving through the neighborhood. Eventually a friend of mine in Orange County reached out to us to see if we were safe. She had seen coverage of the blowout on the news. That’s how we found out about the gas blowout.” Helen’s husband Tim, a high school teacher, had been getting nosebleeds and headaches and she wondered if there was a connection. Once they had all the facts, they, like many families in the community, decided to relocate nearby. “We had a newborn – so once we could relocate, we moved a short distance away, but I was still feeling symptoms – mostly rashes, drowsiness, swollen eyes – so we went farther away to another hotel. It was safer, but there was no kitchen and our new family of three were living in one hotel room together. While the baby napped, I pumped breast milk in the bathroom and cleaned the baby’s bottles in the bathroom sink. It was difficult. When we moved home in March – after they said it was safe to return – our symptoms returned so we moved away again, and stayed away until May. When we returned for good, I was crying myself to sleep each night, wondering what kind of long-term damage I was doing to my son while living in Porter Ranch. We then moved to Santa Clarita that summer and our lives and health improved dramatically. But I remain concerned about my old neighbors. We stayed involved – testifying at hearings, calling health officials to do more tests. We supported State Senator Henry Stern. I want it shut down.”