Josh, thats exactly what happens. The police arrive at a ruptured gas line and light flares
Police like flares, they are cool!
My friends on the fire department called it their "cop-o-logical indicator" for hazmat incidents.
The police would arrive first, pull their car up under the leaking, overturned tanker truck and setup flares. The fire department would stop a block away and watch the police man for a few moments. If he was still OK then they would continue on to the scene.
You think I'm kidding dont you?