Ohio Gas Explosion Seen And Heard Miles Away

HANOVERTON, Ohio — People miles away reported hearing a "blowtorch" sound and could see a glow in the sky from a gas pipeline explosion that shook residents in eastern Ohio, an official said Friday.

"From 20 to 25 miles away they could hear a cracking," said Jim Hoppel, president of the board of commissioners governing Columbiana County, Ohio. "Some people said it was like a blowtorch."

The Thursday night explosion and fire happened a day after a house explosion in neighboring Pennsylvania took the lives of five residents and destroyed several homes in Allentown.

A dispatcher for the county sheriff's office said officials had no reports of injury in the blast near Hanoverton. She said there was no mandatory evacuation but those in the village of about 400 people and surrounding towns who wanted to leave their homes could find shelter at a school and the Salineville Fire Department.

The explosion occurred about 10:30 p.m. Thursday. A television station initially reported one house caught fire but Robert Newberry, a spokesman for El Paso Corp., which operates Tennessee Gas Pipeline, said there were no structural fires. One house was damaged, however, the company said. Newberry said only one nearby resident was evacuated.

Hoppel said he observed the sky "all lit up" from the county seat in Lisbon, about 20 miles from the scene of the blast. Others up to 40 miles away reported seeing a glow, he said.

The explosion occurred in an area of farms in the rural county bordering on Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Hoppel said. "Had it been close to one of our villages or cities, why, it would have been much more serious," he added.

Company spokesman Richard Wheatley said an investigation into what caused the blast is under way.

The explosion involved a 36-inch, buried transmission line that dates to the 1960s and carries natural gas through the region, he said. Mechanisms in the section that "failed" automatically shut off the segment and the residual gas burned off, he said.

The segment was last inspected with inline technology in 2005, and inspectors found no "anomalies that required immediate action," he said.

In 2007, El Paso Corp. agreed to a $15.5 million fine as part of a settlement with the government involving an explosion in 2000 near Carlsbad, N.M., that killed 12 people camping near a 50-year-old pipeline. The settlement included a commitment from El Paso to spend $86 million to modify its 10,000-mile pipeline system.

Wheatley said Friday he didn't immediately know whether the pipeline segment involved in the Ohio blast was modified because of the settlement.

Comments

[CB5]

02:43 PM on 02/13/2011

So much for our infrastructure in our country. You know improvements will be cut with the budget cuts. Speaking of budget cuts, quit giving our money away to other countries, bring home our tired soldiers, and let's get OUR country back in shape. We should be more worried about our country than any other country right now and until we get back on track. Not the GOP way, but the Fair way for all.

[GreenKate]

12:30 PM on 02/13/2011

Compare this to Katrina and New Orleans, because of the infrastructure issue. Local papers in New Orleans predicted levee failure in a high category hurricane. They didn't just mention it in passing but did exhaustive stories. The levees were built by the US Government long ago.

Most infrastructure in the US was built decades ago by people who knew that "taxes are the price we pay for civilization". Since Reagan, opposing taxes has become religion to the GOP. So we have become slobs, courting disaster rather than paying our bills. Regulated utilities operate similar to government, and with the same result, due to millions of Americans thinking we can have something for nothing.

[Christian Figueroa]

12:21 AM on 02/13/2011

thanks for the deregulation, GOPussies!

[OkieMon]

04:11 PM on 02/12/2011

now more prevalent is this going to become as we embrace natural gas as a "green" alternative to coal as wanted by the natural gas lobby and corporations? let alone talking about the pollution of all our drinking water by the hight toxic high volume fracking....

[GreenKate]

12:14 PM on 02/13/2011

The huge explosion that leveled a neighborhood in San Bruno, CA last fall was due to an old failing pipeline under too much pressure. Across the US, old infrastructure is not being replaced and expanded to keep up with age and expanding population. These parts are not intended to last forever. And when population expands in an area, sometimes the local utility would rather use the lines beyond safe capacity rather than pay for more.

Any time we let a for profit business do something potentially dangerous, disaster is a possibility because maintenance costs money. And it is also possible with public works, like the levees in New Orleans, because politicians harp on taxes so necessary work does not get done. The papers in N.O. were all over the failing levee issue well before Katrina.

[OkieMon]

06:10 PM on 02/13/2011

thanks for the info...

[Patriot86]

01:47 PM on 02/12/2011

Teabaggers paradise.No regulation, all money to top executives and the little people should know better than to live a pipeline. The future of our roads, Internet, bridges, etc. Hello third world country status.

[GreenKate]

12:18 PM on 02/13/2011

Exactly! Worse, you won't even know you live near a pipeline once they take over. They would do away with all those "burdensome" disclosure rules on real estate transactions and for the power companies, which baggers think are just hindering the economy.

[Patriot86]

06:52 AM on 02/14/2011

So true.

[TheMilesHome]

12:17 PM on 02/12/2011

So let's see, they are making billions of dollars in the oil & gas industries and are using an infrastructure that dates back 50 years. And there are no jobs out there because there isn't work to be done?

The lawsuits should be won and the people effected shouldn't receive millions of dollars, they should become the new owners of the companies. Maybe then they would understand what hoarding all that money means to peoples lives.

Oh yeah, and that OSHA and EPA thing the GOP wants. Tell them to stuff it.

[ltague]

11:51 AM on 02/12/2011

These examples are why we need the stimulus money to immediately start inspecting & repairing our infrastructures. For decades experts have said we have ignored these things much too long & will have to pay the piper. Well, it seems the "piper" is here.

[johnjohn1234]

11:34 AM on 02/12/2011

end of days.

[daultman463]

02:50 PM on 02/12/2011

End of days?? Is this the first gas explosion in history??

[johnjohn1234]

11:08 AM on 02/13/2011

I think not, it is happening a lot more these days though. In fact I work with a few guys that, after lunch....oh never mind.

[Ylmaz Kaba]

11:24 AM on 02/12/2011

We need to get off nautral gas too folks !
http://hemencevir.somee.com

[eric14]

02:57 PM on 02/12/2011

spam

[Remember Remember]

11:12 AM on 02/12/2011

god ble$$ the u$a.

[morada2025]

11:01 AM on 02/12/2011

The answer lies not in new pipelines and natural gas infrastructure. The answer lies in green technology. If you think gas explosions are bad, you havent seen the documentary Gasland by Josh Fox. http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/

We are in crisis, allowing big oil to push natural gas drilling, and if you dont believe it, talk to some of the people in the western US who can light their sink faucets on fire ! Not to mention what fracking does to our fresh water supply and the environment.

We need to get off nautral gas too folks ! Natural gas is not green, and it's not clean!

[rodjard]

10:18 AM on 02/12/2011

I once worked for the phone company. In each switching exchange there was a maintence person who was busy working 40 hrs per week for years doing routine maintenance on the equipment. Many of the exchanges were proud of the fact that there were no interupions in service for years at a time. Then some "brilliant" managers decided to save labor costs by keeping only a few employees and only fixing what broke. They influenced the Public Service Commission to relax the rules and not fine them for more and more service outages. It was
cost effective. Poor service, constant outages, no pride. That's the way to run a business to make an exhorbitant prifit. Then, new managment decided to lay of the rest of the workers and
outsource the maintenance to private contractors who paid little or no benefits to their few workers but moved then from town to town. Wow, even more cost effective. That is how you loose service for days and things blow up. It does not have to happen. It is just cost effective.

[Totto]

11:00 AM on 02/12/2011

In the long run, it isn't cost effective, but their p/l statements look good for awhile and share prices rise. That's America today, thanks to greed. The infrastructure is falling apart. f/f

[Mike Knell]

12:47 PM on 02/13/2011

I'm glad you brought up the Public Service Commission's (or Public Utilities Commission) not doing their jobs to protect consumers, or the utility employees.
Years ago, I filed a complaint with the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) regarding phone problems and altered records. It was the biggest mistake of my life.
After the San Bruno fire, the CPUC was exposed for being a worthless agency that catered to the Utilities.
After the San Bruno fire, the FBI called me.
See the webpage, www.APhoneNumberForThePresident.com

[rodjard]

03:24 PM on 02/13/2011

Wow, this brings the whole thing full circle to the telecom influence causing a gas explosion. We live in an interconnected world where absolute integrity is required. at every position of managment of public utilities. Public service oversight integrity cannot be overemphesized enough. Where is the real leadership that this country needs so badly?

[ttowse]

10:18 AM on 02/12/2011

Third major blast. When are we going to replace our infrastructure? Record high unemployment that we can bring down with jobs that cannot be outsourced. Is it because these jobs cannot be outsourced that they are taking so long to put into action? We need a government that is for the people and will fund these rebuilds now. Remember the interstate highway system? Kinda like that Mr. President.

[valeskas]

09:50 AM on 02/12/2011

Ohio had this winter 3-4 eruptions of the gaslines. Shareholders go over Security for these companies, new Infrastructures will be put a side, as long as the shareholders and Executives are greedy. People got killed and or lost their homes and hopefully they sue the Gas companies, so they finally start replacing their infrastructure.

[Last chance]

11:22 AM on 02/12/2011

on of the gas companies in the Ohio blast was also found negligent in a new mexico pipeline blast that killed 12 people awhile ago ..... el paso coporation.

http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=558

[Last chance]

11:25 AM on 02/12/2011

* one of the gas

[alteredstory]

09:07 AM on 02/12/2011

Well, thanks be that they were using natural gas. I shudder to think what would have happened if it had been a windspill!