COVINGTON - Firefighters were called to a Louisiana hotel Thursday after someone reported smelling gasoline in the building. Instead of finding a gas leak, however, they found gas cans loaded with fuel inside one of the rooms.

The St. Tammany Fire District said it was called to the Residence Inn in Covington late Thursday morning due to the odor. Once there, firefighters found a pair of gas cans inside one of the guests' rooms.

The discovery comes after crowds of people nationwide scrambled to buy up fuel over fears of a gas shortage, stirred up in the wake of a hack that shut down Colonial Pipeline for days. Officials have said those concerns were unnecessary, and the pipeline restarted operations Wednesday evening. 

The hysteria surrounding the rush to buy up gas also led to an unusual advisory from the federal government Wednesday warning people not to store gasoline in plastic bags and other non-approved containers.