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dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 7:05 p.m.

Looks like a gas line over pressure problem.  Someone is going to loose there job. 150,000 people being told to get out.  

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 7:10 p.m.

6 hurt 2 critical. No fatality’s reported yet. 

 

Appleseed
Appleseed MegaDork
9/13/18 7:11 p.m.

If you are one of them being told to boogie, don't berk around on Grassroots, GTFO.

drainoil
drainoil HalfDork
9/13/18 7:11 p.m.

Wow, initially I read it was 20-30 homes. Unreal!

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 7:12 p.m.
Jerry From LA
Jerry From LA SuperDork
9/13/18 7:12 p.m.

Where?

 

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 7:15 p.m.
Jerry From LA said:

Where?

 

Lawrence and methen and Andover North Andover are involved. 

EastCoastMojo
EastCoastMojo GRM+ Memberand Mod Squad
9/13/18 7:18 p.m.

Glad you are ok, how far from you is this happening? Stay safe up there!

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 7:20 p.m.

I am fine. About 15-20 miles north east of me. This is going to be a big deal. So many people are going to be impacted.

kazoospec
kazoospec UltraDork
9/13/18 7:45 p.m.

Not to be all "tinfoil hat", but I wonder if it would be possible to do this from "the outside" with a computer hack?  

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 8:22 p.m.

I think it is more likely  some one lost the instructions for the proper valve operation in a 100 year old valve box and the old timer that knew how retired. 

Jerry From LA
Jerry From LA SuperDork
9/13/18 8:27 p.m.

An old friend in Reading sent me the news.  He's shut off his gas main, as others in his neighborhood are being instructed to do.

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 8:38 p.m.

From what I gathered they are working on depressurization but it is going to take a while. This tells me it was a big regional line that probibly was accidental connected to a main branch. This would explain why it is such a large area.  We are talking a multiple square miles of area that is impacted. They have cut power to the city’s of Laurence and surrounding affected areas. There is real concern that there could be more issues. 

Wally
Wally GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 9:21 p.m.
dean1484 said:

I think it is more likely  some one lost the instructions for the proper valve operation in a 100 year old valve box and the old timer that knew how retired. 

That happens more often than people realize although obviously with less catastrophic results.

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 9:28 p.m.

Dam. There has been a fatality. 

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 9:30 p.m.

We had a similar thing like this happen one town over years back. Something like 15 homes destroys if I remember.  You would think that this kind of thing just could not happen. 

aircooled
aircooled MegaDork
9/13/18 9:46 p.m.

Something similar happened near San Francisco a few years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito PowerDork
9/13/18 10:03 p.m.

I've been following this since the news broke. I live on the other end of the state on the South Shore, but I have friends up near there, and a GRM'er and Challenge vet (David Seavey) that works in Lawrence (he's ok!). Around 50 confirmed "incidents" caused by this, with more to come. It looks like a war zone. It's unbelievable.

The one fatality so far was an 18 year old kid sitting in his car in his driveway, and the house exploded and tossed the chimney onto the car. sad

KyAllroad (Jeremy)
KyAllroad (Jeremy) PowerDork
9/13/18 10:06 p.m.

Just when you feel safe in your home, something like this comes along......sucky times for a lot of people. 

Woody
Woody GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/13/18 10:11 p.m.

This had to be the result of an overpressure situation. The line pressure must have overpowered all of the residential shutoff valves.

One of the awful facts is that you need to let the gas burn off until you can shut the supply off. If you extinguish the fires, you run the risk of the gas accumulating in an area that could be subject to further explosions. 

dunruhroy
dunruhroy New Reader
9/13/18 11:30 p.m.

Wow ... hope they can get everything under control soon. Heart goes out to the people who have lost their home... oh and also the firefighters and first responders.

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/14/18 7:28 a.m.

There has been no explanation of what happened. I can see this getting ugly if they don’t get ahead of the PR side of things. This part of the state is almost all hardworking blue collar people that were hit hard with the slow down of the early 2000s. They have been slowly coming back but it is not been easy. These people will get angered and start taking names.   On both the corporate side as well as the political side.  

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/14/18 7:30 a.m.

So if you over pressure the system I assume they will have to replace every meter and regulator as well as every gas appliance that was exposed to the over pressure condition?  

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/14/18 7:48 a.m.

Columbia Gas earlier Thursday put out a news release saying it was upgrading natural gas lines in neighborhoods across the state, with a focus on enhanced safety features. Andover, North Andover and Lawrence projects were included.

Interesting safety enhancement features that they came up with  

 

The0retical
The0retical UltraDork
9/14/18 8:18 a.m.

NPR was just talking about this on the way in said 80 homes, one fatality, and dozens injured. That had to frighten a few people.

I was a bit struck that the mayor was saying his first focus was on getting people home, not find the root cause. Basically that means you have to turn off the gas for an indefinite period of time to figure out what happened. I don't think I'd be willing to trust that.

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