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NTSB Explosion Investigation Finds Fire Department Was Unaware Of Gas Line
JOAN LOWY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Until a deadly explosion south of San Francisco last year, local firefighters had no idea there was a large gas transmission pipeline underneath their town - a recurring problem in pipeline accidents, federal safety officials said Wednesday.
A massive fire is roars through a mostly residential neighborhood in San Bruno, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010. Firefighters from San Bruno and surrounding cities are battling the blaze that started on a hillside and is now consuming homes in a residential neighborhood. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
In this Sept. 13, 2010, file photo, a man walks past the remains of homes damaged from a fire caused by an explosion in a mostly residential area in San Bruno, Calif. The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation has raised questions about whether the company should have known it was putting public safety at risk. Eight officials with the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. are scheduled to testify Tuesday, Mach 1, 2011, at a public hearing in Washington.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Related
Major Explosion in San Bruno, Crews Search Ruins
Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which owned the line, did not tell the San Bruno fire department about it or provide a map with its location, the town's fire chief, Dennis Haag, told a National Transportation Safety Board hearing Wednesday. Gas company training materials provided to the fire department were generic, he said.
Haag acknowledged his department hadn't made use of a federal website that provides first responders with maps of gas lines in their community.
"We didn't have the information, we didn't have maps of a pipeline going through," Haag said. "We have heard today there is a system we can access. I just didn't know about it, to be honest with you."
When the pipeline exploded underneath a subdivision, residents and firefighters in the small town south of San Francisco International airport mistakenly thought a plane had crashed. Sixty-eight firefighters arrived on scene, but a giant fireball fed by escaping gas kept them from reaching many of the burning homes until the gas was turned off over an hour later, Haag said.
"Without the fuel supply there is a possibility we could have been in an offensive, rather than a defensive, mode," he said.
Even if he had known about the pipeline, Haag said he wouldn't have done anything differently to fight the fire.
Eight people were killed in the accident, including five whom coroner's reports indicate were fleeing, and dozens of homes were destroyed.
Aaron Rezendez, a PG&E official, said the company holds a meeting each year for San Francisco peninsula fire departments like San Bruno to talk about the company's pipelines, but it is usually attended by less than 20 people. He said there is a large map displayed at the meeting.
Haag said one of his officers attended the 2010 meeting.
Rezendez also said the company sends customers literature inside bills about pipeline safety and pipelines in their community, among other efforts to raise public awareness.
NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman noted that when PG&E sent 15,000 customers postcards asking them if they were aware of transmission lines in their community, the company received only 20 replies. Half the people who responded said they didn't know they had transmission lines nearby, she said.
PG&E recently launched a website in coordination with Google that allows customers to find the location of transmission pipelines in their neighborhoods.
NTSB investigators and safety advocates said a lack of public awareness about pipelines underneath their communities has been a recurring problem in accidents. There are 302,000 miles of gas transmission line nationwide.
One reason is that gas companies start out by emphasizing that pipelines have a great safety record, which causes people to lose interest before they find out there is the potential for an accident and what they should do if one occurs, said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a safety advocacy group.
Federal regulators and the industry were admonished by NTSB in 2009 after a propane explosion in Carmichael, Miss., that killed two people and injured seven. Emergency dispatchers had not been informed the pipeline was there. If they had, investigators concluded, they could have immediately evacuated the area and warned people against doing anything that might ignite the cloud of gas.
An NTSB report also found that the victims' homes were left out of public mailings offering pipeline safety tips.
The Carmichael blast followed dozens of accidents since the 1970s in which companies and agencies were later faulted for sloppy or inadequate emergency response plans.
Utilities and pipeline companies also have been repeatedly admonished for failing to adequately mark their lines.
After the San Bruno accident, firefighters found gas company plastic stickers on sidewalks near the accident site but some were unreadable and others appeared to be missing, Haag said.
Also during the hearing, Julie Halligan, deputy director for the California Public Utilities Commission's consumer and safety programs, said PG&E hasn't been aggressive about using technology to look inside old pipes for problems with weak welds and seams or using water pressure to test the pipes.
The section of pipe that ruptured in San Bruno was installed in 1956. An NTSB examination after the accident revealed it had a seam and inferior welds. PG&E records had inaccurately identified the pipe as being seamless, which is considered safer.
___
Associated Press writers Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., and Garance Burke in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Until a deadly explosion south of San Francisco last year, local firefighters had no idea there was a large gas transmission pipeline underneath their town - a recurring problem in pipeline accidents, federal safety officials said Wednesday.
A massive fire is roars through a mostly residential neighborhood in San Bruno, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010. Firefighters from San Bruno and surrounding cities are battling the blaze that started on a hillside and is now consuming homes in a residential neighborhood. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
In this Sept. 13, 2010, file photo, a man walks past the remains of homes damaged from a fire caused by an explosion in a mostly residential area in San Bruno, Calif. The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation has raised questions about whether the company should have known it was putting public safety at risk. Eight officials with the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. are scheduled to testify Tuesday, Mach 1, 2011, at a public hearing in Washington.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Related
Major Explosion in San Bruno, Crews Search Ruins
Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which owned the line, did not tell the San Bruno fire department about it or provide a map with its location, the town's fire chief, Dennis Haag, told a National Transportation Safety Board hearing Wednesday. Gas company training materials provided to the fire department were generic, he said.
Haag acknowledged his department hadn't made use of a federal website that provides first responders with maps of gas lines in their community.
"We didn't have the information, we didn't have maps of a pipeline going through," Haag said. "We have heard today there is a system we can access. I just didn't know about it, to be honest with you."
When the pipeline exploded underneath a subdivision, residents and firefighters in the small town south of San Francisco International airport mistakenly thought a plane had crashed. Sixty-eight firefighters arrived on scene, but a giant fireball fed by escaping gas kept them from reaching many of the burning homes until the gas was turned off over an hour later, Haag said.
"Without the fuel supply there is a possibility we could have been in an offensive, rather than a defensive, mode," he said.
Even if he had known about the pipeline, Haag said he wouldn't have done anything differently to fight the fire.
Eight people were killed in the accident, including five whom coroner's reports indicate were fleeing, and dozens of homes were destroyed.
Aaron Rezendez, a PG&E official, said the company holds a meeting each year for San Francisco peninsula fire departments like San Bruno to talk about the company's pipelines, but it is usually attended by less than 20 people. He said there is a large map displayed at the meeting.
Haag said one of his officers attended the 2010 meeting.
Rezendez also said the company sends customers literature inside bills about pipeline safety and pipelines in their community, among other efforts to raise public awareness.
NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman noted that when PG&E sent 15,000 customers postcards asking them if they were aware of transmission lines in their community, the company received only 20 replies. Half the people who responded said they didn't know they had transmission lines nearby, she said.
PG&E recently launched a website in coordination with Google that allows customers to find the location of transmission pipelines in their neighborhoods.
NTSB investigators and safety advocates said a lack of public awareness about pipelines underneath their communities has been a recurring problem in accidents. There are 302,000 miles of gas transmission line nationwide.
One reason is that gas companies start out by emphasizing that pipelines have a great safety record, which causes people to lose interest before they find out there is the potential for an accident and what they should do if one occurs, said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a safety advocacy group.
Federal regulators and the industry were admonished by NTSB in 2009 after a propane explosion in Carmichael, Miss., that killed two people and injured seven. Emergency dispatchers had not been informed the pipeline was there. If they had, investigators concluded, they could have immediately evacuated the area and warned people against doing anything that might ignite the cloud of gas.
An NTSB report also found that the victims' homes were left out of public mailings offering pipeline safety tips.
The Carmichael blast followed dozens of accidents since the 1970s in which companies and agencies were later faulted for sloppy or inadequate emergency response plans.
Utilities and pipeline companies also have been repeatedly admonished for failing to adequately mark their lines.
After the San Bruno accident, firefighters found gas company plastic stickers on sidewalks near the accident site but some were unreadable and others appeared to be missing, Haag said.
Also during the hearing, Julie Halligan, deputy director for the California Public Utilities Commission's consumer and safety programs, said PG&E hasn't been aggressive about using technology to look inside old pipes for problems with weak welds and seams or using water pressure to test the pipes.
The section of pipe that ruptured in San Bruno was installed in 1956. An NTSB examination after the accident revealed it had a seam and inferior welds. PG&E records had inaccurately identified the pipe as being seamless, which is considered safer.
___
Associated Press writers Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., and Garance Burke in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Just another justification for on-board computers that include not only building pre-plans but utility grid maps.
Seismic preparation and pre-planning to be successful require good intel. most fire departments unfortunately are flying blindfolded, and sometimes end up paying the ultimate price all because of lack of information resources. It's fixable, but like many other things, it costs lots of money... or does it?
The information such as locations for gas distribution lines requires nothing more than pre-planning and meeting with gas company representatives. Trust me, they want nothing more than for us to know where the hazards are and how to mitigate them quickly, reducing their losses and liabilities. It all starts with a phone call, a meeting and good cup of coffee. All you have to do is ask. We all have portable computers, maybe even an iPad or other small notebook style computer that would allow you to look at graphic images, such as maps provided by the gas company.
Example: Check out this link from the City of Lakewood. This format uses a computer / internet accessible PDF database that enables the user, online, to look at a specific location (lat/long or address), and see ALL the underground utilities using a common zoom feature to look at more detail. You just need a computer, PDA or iPhone. This is not an expensive option and is public information which means that any firefighter could potentially download and have access to the kind of information that the San Bruno Fire Department did not have access too.
Here's an example format that could help fire departments know more about their response area, which includes underground utilities.
Identify Water and Sewer Services in Your Area
Download PDF maps of utilities within the City of Lakeport
Why reinvent the wheel?
CBz
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Permalink Reply by John Carder on
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Where is the "federal website that provides first responders with maps of gas lines in their community"?
The small, rural volunteer department that I'm in has at least one of those lines, but we do not have any maps.
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I did find this: https://www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov/PublicViewer/
It seems to restrict the maps to 1:24,000 or greater, but it's a start.
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again, the answer lies with your relationship that YOU establish with your local utility companies. you know that the folks who have to work on the stuff have maps, you just need a copy or a way to access them online.
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High pressure transmission lines are rarely worked on. The guys that we know work the low pressure lines. We've got a big high pressure line running through our district that basically feeds Denver with its natural gas. It's buried, and there are a couple of signs here and there, but it runs for at least ten miles through our district. I've lived in the district 26 years, and summer was the first time I saw any work on that line (they tapped into it to supply a community).
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