The power of Natural Gas....

Dirk Wright

Construction workers hit a gas line that caused the NJ explosion. Sure glad I have oil heat.

Floyd

This explosion.... WOW!!!!!!

Can't describe the devastation from this explosion...
No one died.... yet. However they may not make it either...
Can't be too carefull when you see here what gas can do.

http://www.stargazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

This was about 50 mi. from me.

Floyd

Jason_15

NJ explosion

Less than an hour ago, an apartment building in Jersey exploded. I'd bet it was gas.....

Anna Conda

Carelessness. I'm bemused by it all. We're nothing but nat-gas in our region, and we rarely have incidents like this. Certainly, nothing in the 30 years I've been here. Wow.

Tony Conner_2

Any...

... kind of energy source can be dangerous under the right (wrong?) circumstances. Oil storage can provide it's own excitement - leaks, spills, or the recent spectacular fire at the storage facility in the UK. There is no free lunch.

Joe Grosso

Gas Explosion

Huh, you are "bemused" by it, are you. I'm not bemused by children having 3rd. degree burns over 60% of their body. As what happened in the new York incident.

soot_seeker_2

Hey Bill...

I don't know if you mistook amuse for bemuse but maybe you just don't know what bemuse actually means.

"Bemuse" means to emotionally confuse or bewilder someone. If it is truly your opinion that this previous poster is bewildered (engrossed in thought, confused, unable to fully comprehend the magnitude, etc.) about the absolute horror of a distaster like this and that there is something wrong with him for doing so then I'm not so sure if I want to ever read anything else you have to say.

Tony_23

I think

Bill is just confused by the similar sounding words. Easy mistake if you don't know.

Arthur

Did you notice that 'they SUSPECT a Gas explosion' Thry didn't say it was a GAS explosion, Said it could take months to be confined.

Jason_15

suspect

What else could it be?? Flour dust? Get real. Of course it was gas. The gas Co. will try to find any reasonable doubt however......

Tony Conner_2

Could Also...

... have been chemical. There have been periodic fires & explosions around here from individuals processing "recreational pharmaceuticals" in their homes. There's always the possibility of an accident, but the vast majority of fires and/or explosions that involved natural gas are traced to botched/illegal repairs or modifications or deliberate acts related to something like insurance fraud. I've seen some "impressive" gasoline storage arrangements, as well.

I find it hard to believe that with several people living in a home that at least one of them wouldn't smell the mercaptan from a leak. Most people can detect it at a few parts per million, and natural gas has to be in the parts per hundred range to burn.

No way to tell what happened until the investigation is complete.

Jason_15

True

Good points. I forgot about the meth labs. Once again I react quickly without considering other options!

Tony Conner_2

You Should...

... see how some people store gasoline.

Anna Conda

Correct. As I said, my part of the world runs almost exclusively on nat-gas and we just don't have the number of incidents that seem to happen over in that part of the world. I've been here thirty years and haven't seen such an incident, yet it seems every couple of months I'm reading about one over there, and it always seems to be caused by some kind of worker carelessness. Its always greeted with posts like these "yahh, nat-gas is dangerous!" Yah, it is dangerous, so you gotta be real careful around it, watch where your digging, find out where your lines are and be careful anyways because the maps arent always accurate, rip the fag out of the mouths of the yokels who don't think "no smoking" applies to them, even if they're the big bosses. I just dont understand why it keeps happening over there.

Anna Conda

I dunno. I walked into a boiler room once that absolutely reeked of nat-gas. The folks thought it was normal. Even smoked all the time down there. Hello! Some people really are that unknowing. (changed out the leaking union, went home and curled into a fetal ball...)

Good point about meth lab, yah. Not many of those here yet, the ones that make the news are shutdowns, no boomers yet so not on the radar yet.......

Jason_15

Where

just curious-where are you from?

Anna Conda

Currently, Canadian prairies. Where its darn cold today, I may tell you *grin*

Adam_12

Natural Gas like any other fossil fuel has the potential of being very dangerous.Where Iam from we have been using natural gas for about 100 years.These accidents are few and far betweenbut they all have the same route cause ,complacency .For the most parts it is not rookies blowing themselves up it is seasoned veterans that forget about the power of natural gas.
Too often we are in a rush to finish a job that we do not adhere to safe working practices .How often have you seen some test a tie in with a lighter.Dont laugh it happens more than you think .
Equipment operators seem to be largely responsible for the majority of incidences .Instead of calling to have the services located or even exposing them with a shovel after they have been located they continue to dig.Again this is complacency and this happens alot although without incidence most of the time.Natural gas is no more dangerous than other fossil fuels or electricity it is just more dramatic when it happens.

Arthur

The power of Natural gas

Over here in NZ anyone who works on Gas installation be it Nat or LPG, MUST be registered and to certify a gas installation MUST be a craftsman gas fitter which the next step up from a registered. Nat or LPG Gas suppliers are not allowed to supply gas to a property Unless there has been a certificate issued for the work, Even if new appliances or alteration have been made an olfd installation a new certificate must be issued, Of course with alteration or extension to existing is harder to catch up with. But the penaties are quite servere.
Oil burner installation can be installed by any Tom,**** Or Harry.No registation required just a building permit depending on the council.
As craftsman gas fitter with over 28yrs experience I have never seen a bang yet from gas.
The worse experience I had was some 35yrs ago when I was servicing an oil burner, Concrete dust got into the honeywell controller it would work the spark intermittily. I went round there one to this motel and got it started it when for about a min but because of previous trys it had a lot of oil in the chamber so it pulsated into lockout even although I open the air full up it had a 1/4" of oil in the bottom of the chamber. I gave it several trys to reset each time it was putting more oil into the chamber then I hit the reset again and and the spark worked that time and all the oil vapour inside went off with great big bang and blew me across the room and I got hit by the draft regulator the room was full of soot and dust all over the clean linen for the Motel. I learn a hard lesson that night.

jim lockard

Conbine

that with medical O2 and a few household chemicals and you have de bomb.