Dozens of Homes and Businesses Evacuated After Ruptured Gas Main Causes Explosion, Underground Fire

Cliffside Park, NJ, United States 2/8/2000- 3:24 AM

The leaking 8-inch metal pipe spewed enough gas that an entire downtown block reeked throughout the morning. yet firefighters and gas company crews searched for eight hours before finally locating the source, said Fire Chief Frank Poerio.

The area affected was near the 300 block of Lafayette Ave.

Link:

http://chemsafety.gov/circ/post.cfm?incident_id=4663

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 11, 2000

Answers

Got bug-out bags near your front door?

-- 1001 Reasons (allaha@earthlink.net), February 11, 2000.

---hey, didn't all the pollys say there was manual work arounds for any problem? Or is this maybe jiss a teeny fairy tale? 8 hours to find the off switch or valve or whatever? How much profits these companies made over the last decades so far? How much these monopolies been making again? Well, it don't matter, we only have puter controlled stuff cuz it's fun, it's not really needed, we got the work arounds, and heck ya, ain't no y2k nuthin involved, even if it was, which it ain't, we got all these manual thingees that work swell, and all the workers know right where they are and how to operate 'em, heck, instantly that's in the manual, ain't it? Gee, "glitch" is such a nice word, ain't no "glitches" ever gonna hurt no one, in fact, ain't a glitch some sort of little furry animal from boogorillaville someplace? Can't hurt ya, go ahead, pet it. go on, pet it.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 11, 2000.

LOL ~! Zog, Y2K Dementia is a nice space to be in!
Enough feel-fuzzy glitches for everybody to adopt a few!

-- we're there (allaha@earthlink.net), February 11, 2000.

Hey, Zog, I didn't know you's from 'round here!

-- Okie Dan (brendan@theshop.net), February 11, 2000.

About 5 AM one Sunday morning in Cincinnati (circa early 70's) we were waked suddenly by the sound of a huge explosion nearby. It turned out to be about 1/4 mile away, in the yard of the public grade school. What blew up was not a gas main but a valve pit for a 24" water main feeding a reservoir about 5 miles further on. The pit cover, a 6" concrete slab 5 ft. by 10 ft., was broken in half, blown into the air, fell back among the piping, and shattered the main. The nearest cutoff for this main was at the waterworks, some 20 miles away on the river. An enormous stream of water poured out of this pit until almost noon, scouring a 3 ft. deep wash in the street, ripped out sidewalks, and flooding a couple of house basements.

What had happened was that gas leaking from buried (and old) services in the area had finally reached sufficient concentration in the valve pit so that actuation of the valve motor ignited it. Everyone in the neighborhood was aware that gas was leaking, just walking around you could often smell it. CG&E had been trying to find the source of the leak for months without success. It turned out most of the leakeage was at the individual house services, which were all replaced in the following months.

The valve pit was rebuilt, this time with a ventilator through the cover...

That's how we learn.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 11, 2000.