http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:STATE61/1:STATE610128100.html

200 evacuated after Boyd gas line blast By Bill Hanna Star-Telegram Staff Writer

A natural gas pipeline explosion jolted residents of the southern Wise County town of Boyd from their sleep Thursday night, forcing the evacuation of about 200 people and leaving the town without gas for heat as temperatures plunged below freezing. Residents were able to return to their homes about 3 a.m. yesterday, and repairs to the pipeline were completed about 5:30 p.m. yesterday, said TXU spokeswoman Carol Peters "It was quite a boom, I can tell you that," said Boyd Mayor Allen Dickey. "I thought it sounded like a big jet airplane. I just never heard a sound quite like that." The pipeline burst just north of Boyd in a pasture near Farm Road 730, sending natural gas across the northern quarter of the Wise County town. A person staying in a house about 200 yards away was not injured, authorities said. Firefighters and law enforcement personnel went door to door, telling residents north of Texas 114 that they had to leave their homes. The remainder of the people in town were awakened and told to turn off gas appliances. "We started assigning everyone to a specific street and got the evacuation done in about 45 minutes," said Jeremy McEntire, the assistant chief of the Boyd Volunteer Fire Department and a member of the City Council. "We got everyone to the community center and the high school. There was heat at the community center, so everyone was able to stay warm," he said. Classes were canceled at Boyd schools yesterday. "We were really lucky that there was no fire, no injuries, no loss of life," McEntire said. "We have been talking for years about getting an emergency evacuation plan in place, and I think this will be the wakeup call to get us to move ahead and get one in place like the bigger cities." The pipeline, which originates southwest of Boyd in Eastland County, was handling 680 pounds of pressure at the time of the accident. It was certified to withstand 800 pounds of pressure. "We don't know why this happened," Peters said. "It wasn't under any extreme pressure. We are prepared for winter." TXU workers pumped a mixture of propane and oxygen into the lines until natural gas service could be restored, Peters said.

-- charlie in houston (cml@workmail.com), January 29, 2000

Answers

wow! Why do you think we're seeing so many gas leaks and pipeline ruptures?

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 29, 2000.

wow! Why do you think we're seeing so many gas leaks and pipeline ruptures?
-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 29, 2000.

uhh.........
Because you are specifically searching for "Natural Gas" "Explosion" "Pipeline" and "Rupture" and posting whatever the search pulls up?

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), January 29, 2000.

Thank goodness no one was hurt!

Explosions always make headlines plonk!, clearly there is an increase, and this was documented in prior threads.

I've been very concerned about the gas lines, and question the percentage which is accurately caused by ground shifts. Anyone got seismic data to support a DRAMATIC increase in these regions PRIOR to the explosion, rather than DURING the explosion, which would be expected?

I am the only house on my street that does not have natural gas, but was delighted this fall to have the gas company come out and dig up EVERYONE's front yard to "replace the valves" quoting the tech doing the work.

Makes ya think, huh? What areas have the same valves as mine, yet did not have the resources to replace them weeks before rollover?

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 29, 2000.

Hokie, this "valve replacement" thing makes me suspicious too. There have been many home explosions lately, and I wonder if the valves could have been the problem, either the new ones or the old ones.

Did everybody in America get his/her front lawn dug up for natural gas valve replacements?

Take care

-- George (jvilches@sminter.com.ar), January 29, 2000.

George-

Is it possible that replacing old mechanical devices is part of a normal maintence schedule?

nah....

No mass replacements of valves in my town, or the City of Chicago ...yet.

Good God, the more I write, the more I sound like a Polly.

I am "aquainted" with someone who works for his father's company. I seem to recall they make VALVES for NATURAL GAS.

They are in Chicago. I don't know the name of the company, it didn't really mean anything to me at the time he told me, but now I think I will give him a call and see if I can shake anything out of him.

I will report back later with whatever info I can dig up, positive or negative.

Whatever he's got has to be better than this "Headline News".

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), January 29, 2000.

Remember seeing this last evening on local news..Austin,Tx..whenever i see these reports although few and far between on local or national news programs..(you'll see more here than there)you should always wonder about the cause..its always a small and unimportant matter when its not happening to you..whenever its reported its seems to be always 'don't know how ,why it happened..but its sure not due to y2k

-- george (jones@choices.com), January 29, 2000.

OK, I will make a guess.

For the rollover, they took down lots and lots of automated systems for monitoring if those systems could open/close values on their own. So everybody is on manual.

Now if some of the workers act like my dad, then it would have been better if the automated systems were still in place.

Assuming the automated systems work, of course. Does anybody know if they got all the bugs out of the things?

-- bart simpson (bart@simpsonsonfox.com), January 29, 2000.

Homer: "The pressure thingy is acting funny again."

Gomer: "Ok, turn the valve to open the line and feed more gas into the pipe."

Homer: " OK, if a little is good more mus be better."

Manual control equals volatile and over pressure systems equal leaks equal explosion????

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), January 29, 2000.

The e-mail I quoted here was sent by a resident of Boyd -- http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch- msg.tcl?msg_id=002R4i

And the family did not go to the shelter --

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 29, 2000.