A Huge Natural Gas Line Explosion Just Lit Up West Virginia [PHOTOS]

business insider ^ | 12.11.2012 | Matthew Boesler

[Morgana]

Reports are coming in of a big explosion in Sissonville, West Virginia.

Via local news outlet WSAZ:

The northbound lanes of Interstate 77 are closed in the Sissonville area, from Tuppers Creek to Pocatalico due to what's being called a major gas line explosion.

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper tells WSAZ.com crews were called to what was described as a major gas line explosion in Sissonville.

WSAZ says that right now, no injuries or fatalities have been reported.

Below are two photos from Twitter. The first was posted by Charleston Gazette reporter

[Morgana]

There are reports coming in that this was the case.

http://www.wowktv.com/story/20316402/explosion-in-sissonville-7441-teresa-lane-cedar-ridge-center-nursing-home-homes-fire

“A gas well explosion rocked Sissonville shortly before 1 p.m. today, setting several homes on fire and forcing officials to issue a shelter in place for local residents.”

[buckalfa]

"Isn’t Sissonville where Buckwild is shot?"

Unfortunately it is. Tempting as it may be to insert a pun line or two on this, I will resist and offer prayers to all who may have been effected by this inferno.

[Morgana]

So far no deaths reported and been glued to the TV and police scanner.
Only injuries are from breathing smoke.

Did hear several moments ago about the Dog Warden going out to Sissonville but could not catch was that was about.

So go ahead. Yea it was Buckwild’s Moonshine still exploding.

[presently no screen name]

I always enjoy your posts when your engineer hat is on. I remember what you said about Sandy and how NYC will have problems in the future on how they tackled the problem and it wasn’t good!

Thanks for the pictures, if that pipe was ever on any road I traveled - I never noticed them but now I will and know what they are for.

Does a state have engineers inspecting the crossings and is the only way to do this is rip up the road? Do they have ‘ex rays’ to do this?

[chrisser]

Yes and I think their moonshine still just blew up.

LOL!

We have some property not too far away, in Wirt cty.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that shining is alive and well in the hills. Hope to take it up myself someday, for medicinal purposes, of course.

Are there any ping lists for the Metro/MOV regions?

[presently no screen name]

Yes, I looked at the map. Rt 77 runs N/S and he’s a distance south of Sissonville.

[The Cajun]

A gas well explosion????

Just the news folk running around doing what they do best :)

[Morgana]

[EternalVigilance]

I have a good friend north of there who has a large pipeline that runs across his property. He gets free gas to his house as part of an old contract to have some sort of valve on his place.

Always seemed like a great deal, but after seeing these pics I’m not so sure about that ...

[buckalfa]

I was thinking more in line of tens of dollars in damages, however WV is the butt of too many tasteless jokes as is. 15 years in Greenbrier County taught me that. Are you in Kanawha, Putnam, or Cabell counties? Prayers are still up for these folks.

[PA Engineer]

Does a state have engineers inspecting the crossings and is the only way to do this is rip up the road? Do they have ‘ex rays’ to do this?

The state and federal have regulations in regards to certain annual inspection requirements. The data is sent in as part of the compliance reports. My experience indicates the data is rarely reviewed beyond a yes or no that inspections were conducted.

There are two methods (short of excavation) for testing. Electrical and pigging are complimentary. The electrical, if properly interpreted would indicate problems with the cased configuration. The pigging would provide information on wall thickness and other anomalies.

I have been contracted in the past by companies to review their compliance work and data. Much of the data is taken by technicians who may understand the testing, or may just be going through the motions of collecting the data. I have found on many occasions that the data was either interpreted wrong for years or incorrectly gathered.

[Morgana]

What you see here if a f*** up by someone, somewhere high on the totem pole.

Natural gas is safe and efficient. The ding-a-lings running the show some times scare me.

[Morgana]

[Erasmus]

You can just feel the heat on your face, in that photo.

[ctdonath2]

Yeah, he might want to reconsider.
If nothing else, call before digging.

http://www.americanleakdetection.com/newsleak/tag/ruptured-gas-line/

[21twelve]

“There are remediation methods, however it is a problem that is regularly missed.”

I wonder how much could have been done with the hundreds of millions of dollars that Obama flushed down the hole with those solar energy firms if that had been directed to firming up some of our critical existing infrastructure?

[Morgana]

[Doomonyou]

[bgill]

Imagine driving down the road and bam! I can’t believe they only shut down the northbound lanes.

[Revel]

Barry Newman would could drive right through that.

[Erasmus]

Not the best testimonial to vinyl siding, that.

[PA Engineer]

What you see here if a f*** up by someone, somewhere high on the totem pole.

I was able to zoom in to the location of the crossing on google earth. Do you know if the Rt. 622 Exit 114 work was done recently?

[Delta Dawn]

Grab the hotdogs and marshmallows Martha!

[TheMom]

Ping.

[Morgana]

“Do you know if the Rt. 622 Exit 114 work was done recently? “

I did not know there was work to be done. Then again it seems like they are always working on the interstate system in WV

[Eaker]

Seems I remember that.

Which station was it?

[thackney]

The biggest one I remember was Florida Gas Transmission while at GIE. I think it was station 11 in Alabama.

During a unit blowdown, lightning struck the unit vent stack and ignited.

Might have burned out on it’s own, except for the panic it created.

There were several units there. Some one hit the station ESD and a station blowdown began. The other unit vents, and the station vent, were right next to the unit vent on fire.

When the pressure dropped enough and the flow slowed down, the fire had already spread.

Eventually it took out all three main pipelines crossing the yard.

One of the more memorable pictures was where a 36 inch valve seat had flown through the air, slicing a near perfect semi-circle out of a large tree, hundreds (thousand?) feet from the valve location.

Rudichuck had been on site of a previous one with the infamous crooked E. It was a big ball of fire but went out very quick with minimal damage. I cannot remember the pipeline.

on FGT, were doing an expansion a year or so later. The pictures they had of the fire were something else. I remember the local fire department made the mistake of trying to fight the fire before it spread to the pipelines themselves. They had to buy a new fire truck but no one was seriously hurt.

[WVNan]

Yes Morgana, I thought about the forest fire too. Thank God for the rain or that fire could have destroyed most of the town plus the forests. It’s a miracle it wasn’t worse.

[WVNan]

There was a woman who rode out the fire in that house. She called her family and told them she loved them. She thought it was her last minutes to live. Can you imagine?

[WVNan]

They repaired the road overnight and opened it back up by this afternoon.

[WVNan]

News said that Columbia Gas has been sited for safety violations several times. That’s gonna hurt.

[PA Engineer]

Here is a follow up on the pipeline explosion for your reference.

NTSB releases preliminary report on West Virginia pipeline rupture

The rupture occurred in a pipe that was a part of a pipeline segment installed in 1967 with an original, nominal wall thickness of 0.281 inches. The 20-foot ejected section of the pipe was fractured in the base metal along the entire longitudinal direction along the bottom of the pipe. The outside surface of the pipe was heavily corroded near the midpoint and along the longitudinal fracture. The thinned area was approximately 6 feet in the longitudinal direction and 2 feet in the circumferential direction. The lowest wall thickness measured was 0.078 inches.

I will find out sooner or later if this was a location of a pulled casing. The corrosion occurred contrary to established best practices, regulation and corrosion prevention technologies.