Entire Ohio Town Ordered to Evacuate After Gas Explosion

Entire Ohio Town Ordered to Evacuate After Gas Explosion

January 24, 2011

The Lookout - All 3,200 residents of Fairport Harbor, Ohio, were told to evacuate Monday morning after gas-line leaks caused explosions and fires in about 15 homes and buildings. No one was hurt.

Those who did not leave during the initial evacuation effort were later told to shut off their gas and stay inside, but frigid temperatures could make that dangerous, according to the local ABC news affiliate Channel 5.

The gas company, Dominion Gas, said that the explosion happened because the pipeline was too pressurized, and that company workers have since fixed the problem.

Carl Weimer, the head of a watchdog safety group called Pipeline Safety Trust, tells The Lookout there's a pipeline incident about every other day in the country, in part because the nation's aging pipelines are inadequately maintained. Last week, a Philadelphia gas explosion (pictured) killed a 19-year-old Philadelphia Gas Works worker, injured five others and displaced at least 15 families.

The U.S. has about 300,000 miles of high-pressure transmission pipelines, of which 20,000 miles run through highly populated areas. The average age of the pipelines is about 50 years, though the age shouldn't be a problem if the pipes are well maintained, Weimer says.

After a 50-year-old Pacific Gas and Electric Co. pipe exploded last year in San Bruno, Calif., killing eight people and flattening 38 homes, national attention turned to the issue of pipeline safety.

"San Bruno woke up a lot of communities, and we see a lot more discussion on the local level now -- even just people becoming aware of where the pipelines are in their neighborhood," Weimer said.

After that explosion, he noted, high Web traffic several times crashed the government website where users can find out whether they live above a gas line.

Lawmakers introduced several congressional bills last year to beef up pipeline regulation, but none passed. However, as of November, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration started enforcing a new rule that requires gas companies to report exactly what type of inspections they are performing on pipes, writes San Francisco Chronicle's Eric Nadler.

That precaution is important, industry observers say, because all inspections are not created equal. Some tests are much better at detecting certain problems, so this new rule should give regulators a better idea of whether a pipe really is safe or whether the wrong type of inspection is just declaring it safe.

Gas companies must report the age of their pipelines, but government records show that nearly 5,000 miles of pipe are listed as unknown, according to Nadler.