Texas panhandle gas pipeline blast kills 2

Reuters ^ | Tue Jun 8, 2010 | Erwin Seba and Bruce Nichols

[Willie Green]

(Reuters) - A natural gas pipeline exploded Tuesday in the Texas panhandle near the border with Oklahoma, killing two people, authorities said.

A total of three people have died in two gas pipeline blasts in as many days in Texas. One worker was killed on Monday near Cleburne, Texas, when a construction crew struck a buried pipeline.

Tuesday's explosion occurred when a bulldozer being used to remove caliche from a pit near Darrouzett, about 145 miles/230 km northeast of Amarillo, struck a gas pipeline, according to the Lipscomb County Sheriff's Office.

[Willie Green]

Yesterdays explosion: 3 dead after Texas gas blast. At least 10 missing after giant fire at natural gas pipeline

[GeronL]

bump

[Free America52]

Why are there gas lines and oil rigs blowing up all over the place?

[RobRoy]

Coincidence. It happens.

/s

[GeronL]

Obama’s lax enforcement? ... lol

[Danae]

That’s what I am asking.

How often do these things happen? Is this average? Above average? Who tracks that kind of data?

[al baby]

I believe we are under attack

[mnehring]

Here is a good way to see the trends in news reports on pipeline explosions.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&as_scoring=r&as_maxm=5&q=pipeline+explosion&as_qdr=a&as_drrb=q&as_mind=9&as_minm=5&cf=all&as_maxd=20&sugg=d&sa=N&lnav=d2&as_ldate=2000&as_hdate=2000&ldrange=1977%2C1990&hdrange=2002%2C2009

The chart displayed shows there actually was a big peak around 2000, then again in 2007. Doesn’t seem like 2010 is out of pattern. I wouldn’t read too much into the dropping numbers before 95 because of the fewer archived stories loaded on the web.

[kevao]

Atlas is shrugging.

[Publius]

Wyatt’s Torch.

[comps4spice]

I think this is the work of Democrats—creating crises to not waste.

[justsaynomore]

I checked this out... Some of the “peaks” are just the same news articles reported by a lot of different sources (therefore a large number of news “hits”). This doesn’t mean the actual numbers of incidents were high, just the number of news items about it were high.

I did some searches back in May about all this, the oil refineries, coal mines, energy plant, and now these. There are accidents over the years, but fatal accidents are not that common.

A few folks came on FR to refute these concerns, but the numbers they used are from this admin’s energy department numbers and the steelworker’s union which is a huge democrat supporter (which used the same numbers). Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

I would feel a lot better if some independent entity would take a look at this, one that is not somehow connected to Obama (not that he has an agenda or anything /s)

[Xenalyte]

HC has the stats, but I believe that in Texas, we have 15 to 20 a year.

[doc1019]

If I were a conspiracy freak, I would be looking at our open borders for the occasional misunderstander of Islam who might get into our country. A misunderstander of Islam that might want to cause mischief in the name of his false god allah. Just say’n

[Richard Kimball]

When the first gas, water and sewer lines were laid in a lot of areas, the companies didn't keep good records. I got a call once on a ground crew that had ruptured a six inch main. I took a look at it, called it in and Lone Star Gas came out. The foreman, a condescending, stupid bast@rd, came up to me and said, "Well, I understand you fire boys get excited about stuff like this, but there aren't any six inch mains in this area. It's probably a one inch line. People who don't know much about this stuff get excited and think the line's bigger than it is." I told him to go over and look at it. He came back and said, "That's a six inch line." I ended up talking to the foreman of the work crew that originally broke the main, cause the gas company tries to bill the repair costs to the construction crew that built the line. Anyway, the crew had called and been told there weren't any gas lines in that area, and the gas company verified there weren't any on their maps when they were "setting me straight."

The whole gas company crew was incompetent. One guy had a face that looked like a vagina. Another crew member told me he'd been hit in the head with a steel cable a couple of years ago when they were pulling some pipe. Even with competent crews, it's still dangerous work. I've made three or four calls where road crews hit gas lines that weren't on the official utility maps.

[2CAVTrooper]

I know all too well how that is since I’m in the business of finding leaks.

Nine times out of ten I have to guess where the lines run because nothing is ever marked as it’s supposed to be, and to make things worse the guys who know where the lines run have retired years ago.

[stboz]

Anybody using muzzie back-hoe operators?

[stormer]

By heavy equipment operators? So far they’re not doing a very good job attacking.