Natural gas, in it's purest form, is odorless and colorless yet the townspeople react to the bad smell of the gas by covering their noses.
It wasn't till 1937 that Mercaptan, a harmless chemical was added to the natural gas that gives it a distinctive rotten egg smell and makes it easier to detect.
So the townspeople couldn't have reacted to the awful smell of the natural gas in the manner they did since they could not actually "smell" the gas.