
Multiple gas explosions and fires in Massachusetts - tlb
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/13/us/massachusetts-explosions-fires/index.html
======
ilamont
This is playing nonstop on all local news channels in the Boston area, and the
footage is terrifying. One house just blew up, and then residents across a
wide area said they heard hissing in their home and fires broke out in 70 of
them. A news helicopter circled one of them for 40 minutes before firefighters
could reach it, there were just too many other fires and not enough local
resources. One of the towns (Andover or North Andover) had 38 fires in all,
including 18 burning at one time.

They have a good "mutual aid" system here and fire apparatus from the
neighboring communities including New Hampshire and all over the Boston area
eventually flooded in to these three cities (Lawrence, Andover, North Andover)
to help.

Someone mentioned there have been incidents like this before in Lexington,
Mass. The news also mentioned another incident in Danvers more than 10 years
ago but that wasn't natural gas, it was improperly stored chemicals:
[http://archive.boston.com/news/specials/local/danvers_explos...](http://archive.boston.com/news/specials/local/danvers_explosion/)

ETA: An 18 year old died - he was sitting in a car in a driveway next to the
house that exploded, and a chimney fell on the vehicle.

~~~
emodendroket
It's an absolute nightmare scenario. You can be doing everything right and,
whoops, your house just gets blown up out of nowhere.

~~~
erjjones
Does anyone know how you could go about installing your own regulator at your
house on your gas line?

Would it even be able to mitigate something like this?

Curious..

~~~
jhayward
You would need a overpressure relief valve, not a regulator. And it's not
clear to me what you would do with the overpressure except either (a) block it
to protect internal systems, leaving the externals to fend for themselves, or
(b) flare it off via a rooftop vent system, which would be quite hazardous and
unwieldy to maintain.

~~~
sleepybrett
but who doesn't want a flamethrower mounted to their roof?

------
kbos87
I don’t know about the rest of the nation but the natural gas infrastructure
in Massachusetts is comically terrible. It isn’t unusual to be walking down
the street in Boston (note: a separate utility than tonight’s incident) and to
walk into a cloud of natural gas. I had such a cloud on my residential street
for years that was strong enough to burn your eyes. National Grid would come
by every few months, stick a probe in the ground, and declare it not worth
fixing despite our repeated calls. I wonder how much of their product actually
makes it from production facilities to end households without leaking out
along the way.

~~~
ridgeguy
You might try looking up your gas company's agent for service of process
(Secretary of State site search, probably).

Send a registered snail mail describing the leak in your neighborhood to the
agent, copy corporate counsel and at least one local news organization. Major
bonus points if you find and copy the gas company's insurance carrier.
Emphasize the potential for destruction of property and death of innocents -
and the gas company's potential liability. Raise the spectre of California's
PG&E and San Bruno.

Management and its insurers care deeply about liability. Old-fashioned paper
trails can be surprisingly effective.

~~~
swingline-747
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion)

~~~
emodendroket
> On January 13, 2012, an independent audit from the State of California
> issued a report stating that PG&E had illegally diverted over $100 million
> from a fund used for safety operations, and instead used it for executive
> compensation and bonuses.

That's pretty impressively cynical.

------
aphextron
Do a google search for "columbia gas" before today. There's page after page of
people being killed and injured in small scale explosions, and reporting
severe leaks.

[https://www.google.com/search?biw=1920&bih=953&tbs=cdr%3A1%2...](https://www.google.com/search?biw=1920&bih=953&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A8%2F22%2F2010%2Ccd_max%3A9%2F12%2F2018&tbm=nws&ei=YRubW53sG4zN8APeq5ewAw&q=%22columbia+gas%22&oq=%22columbia+gas%22&gs_l=psy-
ab.3..0l3.13549.15588.0.16005.2.2.0.0.0.0.74.141.2.2.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-
ab..0.2.141....0.4SiU4j8KSiI)

Is this normal for other gas utilities?

~~~
blattimwind
> Is this normal for other gas utilities?

I've never heard of "mini gas leaks" that are supposed to be fine until I've
seen this thread. Every gas leak that's reported here must be fixed. Gas-
related explosions still happen, I'd say it's 50:50 people messing with gas
piping and people attempting suicide.

~~~
arctangos
I did a project on this some time ago. Columbia gas was one of the worst
offenders for sheer volume of leaks. Not only is it normal to leave leaks
unfixed, frequently they disappear from the public record without any recorded
nearby fixes.

It'd be interesting to see whether there's a correlation between explosion and
leak location.

Github:
[https://github.com/RogerTangos/LostLeaks/tree/master/data](https://github.com/RogerTangos/LostLeaks/tree/master/data)

Overview (just for the Boston Area. I didn't do the analysis for Columbia
gas.) [http://lostleaks.csail.mit.edu](http://lostleaks.csail.mit.edu)

I'm happy to lend a hand for the Columbia 2016-17, and 2017-18 data if others
want to join in.

~~~
dmix
Interesting, what motivated you to do this project?

Some news sites would probably interested in this website/project at the
moment...

------
arachnophobe
When i was growing up something similar happened in our town - over pressure
caused by connecting a high pressure gas line to the local supply - police
closed off the whole town and a few bits and pieces blew up/caught fire.

[http://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/herts-
history/towns-...](http://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/herts-
history/towns-and-villages/royston/great-gas-crisis)

That was human error rather than failing infrastructure.

My initial thought in this case, before hearing about the underinvestment by
the utility company, was SCADA kit tampering/hacking. Running the pressure
slightly high would be a very similar approach to the spinning of centrifuges
at slightly over speed - not immediately detectable but with serious
consequences. Judging by the comments on this thread it looks more like
ineptitude/negligence by the utility.

------
acomjean
This happened in Lexington Massachusetts a few years back. It was over
pressurization of the gas system as suspected. Any little leaks get magnified.

[https://dailycollegian.com/2005/11/explosion-destroys-
lexing...](https://dailycollegian.com/2005/11/explosion-destroys-lexington-
home/)

[https://www.firehouse.com/photo-
story/article/10550631/gas-e...](https://www.firehouse.com/photo-
story/article/10550631/gas-explosion-fire-level-lexington-massachusetts-home)

~~~
jws
We forgot how insane it is to pump explosive gas into our houses beacause
we’ve gotten so good at it. I was remembering a similar accident near me, and
it turned out to be 1982. That’s a lot of unremarkable years in between.

 _(1982) A state of emergency was in effect today after 28 homes and
businesses burst into flames within seconds when the pressure in a natural gas
line was kicked up accidentally, causing water heaters and furnaces to spit
fire like "blowtorches."_

[http://www.gendisasters.com/missouri/18442/centralia-mo-
natu...](http://www.gendisasters.com/missouri/18442/centralia-mo-natural-gas-
line-explosions-jan-1982)

~~~
kibwen
As much as I love my gas stove, part of me can't help but think that we mostly
won't be running gas lines into new houses within a few decades. Both gas and
electricity can kill you, but a closed pressurized system of flammable gas is
just harder (and more expensive) to engineer, install, and maintain than a
wire run. But now I'm curious as to what sort of huge increase in power
generation capacity it would theoretically take to cover for what gas heating
currently provides...

~~~
praseodym
In the process of moving to renewable energy, The Netherlands has banned
natural gas connections to new houses starting 1 July 2018. This is even
though the country has one of the largest gas fields in the world [1].
Electric (induction) cooktops and district heating are very good alternatives
to using gas (and safer, even though the gas infrastructure is very good).

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_gas_field](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_gas_field)

~~~
nacnud
What are we going to do with all those dormant pipes? Could some clever
startup use them to route physical packets of stuff? :)

~~~
praseodym
Gas pipes don’t have very large diameters. That being said, they could be used
to route fibre optic cables through without digging.

------
thsowers
I saw it mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but it may be worth noting that
there has been a lockout of National Grid workers since June 25th. These
workers serviced "700,000 gas customers in 85 communities in eastern
Massachusetts", NGrid has replaced them with contract workers to continue
service[0].

A site representing the union states that those locked out "do the critical
work of maintaining natural gas lines for homes, schools, and businesses
across Massachusetts"[1]

Unsure if this is related to the current incident & Columbia Gas

edit: Press conferences seem to indicate that Columbia Gas is responsible for
this region and not National Grid. Seems Unrelated

[0]: [http://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2018/08/13/national-grid-
lock...](http://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2018/08/13/national-grid-lockout)

[1]: [https://www.usw.org/act/campaigns/lockout-at-national-
grid/r...](https://www.usw.org/act/campaigns/lockout-at-national-
grid/resources/facts-about-the-lockout-at-national-grid)

~~~
spchampion2
This wasn't National Grid's gas line. It belonged to Columbia Gas.

------
United857
Not just Massachusetts -- a similar incident happened in the SF Bay Area a
while back:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion)
The pipeline dated back to 1956.

If you think about it: highly flammable/explosive substance transported under
high pressure 24/7 in decades-old infrastructure -- it's amazing there hasn't
been more accidents.

------
bitL
I am wondering if Watch_Dogs-style cellphone-controlled terror might become
reality soon if hackers manage to control gas companies' pressure systems;
they could truly cause devastating blows to arbitrary cities with very little
defense against and limited tracking back to perpetrators.

~~~
emodendroket
Stuxnet is the same idea. But really hackers are unnecessary when you have
shoddy workmanship and lax regulation.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
MA is not exactly the first state that comes to mind when one say "lax
regulation."

We share a border with a state that prides itself on not over-regulating
things and their houses aren't blowing up.

This is just the product of good, old fashioned incompetence and apathy from
top to bottom.

~~~
emodendroket
I mean, Massachusetts is better than others. But that doesn't necessarily mean
all the regulation is robust.

------
gwbas1c
I hope this isn't an obvious question: Why aren't there safeties in the system
to control these kinds of problems?

For example, I have a giant gas meter outside my home. How come it can't turn
the gas off when the line is over pressure? Massachusetts state law requires
that the gas company change it every few years. (I'm a MA resident)

My breaker box will turn off if there is a fault.

~~~
tonyarkles
Couple of thoughts about gas and electricity and the similarities and
differences:

\- an overpressure situation is specifically trying to blow through whatever
"off" means (e.g. a ball valve or whatever the valves are). If the pressure
rises too much, that valve is going to fail. That's true of circuit breakers
too, but the "overvoltage fault voltage" of a circuit breaker is likely going
to be way way way higher than anything you could reasonably expect from the
grid, although lightning could probably flash over it.

\- Your breaker box will turn off during certain forms of fault, but not all.
A line overvoltage probably wouldn't trip a breaker until the line voltage
gets high enough to cause a fault in some piece of equipment connected
downstream of the breaker (e.g. it blows up a switching power supply in your
house and that fault current trips the breaker)

\- In the gas overpressure case, if all of the houses had gas meters that
automatically turned off... the pressure in the community gas line would rise
higher and higher. This is going to sound a bit cold, but it's likely better
to have some houses blow up due to overpressure than to have a gas main
explode after all of the houses have already shut off the gas.

Bad situation all around :(. While acknowledging that I'm not a Mech E, my
guess would be that the best solution would be to have periodically-placed
blow-off valves on the gas main that could flare the gas if there were an
overpressure situation. You don't really want to just release it, because then
you've got a cloud of gas floating around that could get ignited by...
whatever random ignition source.

~~~
maxsilver
This is probably a stupid idea, (I know absolutely nothing about natural gas)
but why can't we emergency vent the gas outside?

My gas meter is already outside the house, more than 30 feet away from
anything flammable. In an emergency overpressure like this, shouldn't I be
able to pull some sort of emergency lever to vent the gas _outside_.

Yeah, that gas is flammable, which is risky. But that has to be less risky
than just sitting around waiting for my house to blow up, which seems to be my
only option today.

~~~
tonyarkles
If your gas installation is anything like mine, you could go outside and shut
off the feed into your house. There's a valve that you could turn with a
crescent wrench. Mine, at least, has a hole in it that the gas company can put
a lock through when the valve is shut (which is what they do when they cut off
your gas service).

That way you're at least not going to have the inside of your house fill with
gas.

The trick with an overpressure gas main is that pulling that lever isn't going
to be a "gas vents off for a few seconds and then things are good again"
event. You won't be just reducing the pressure for your house, you'll be
reducing the pressure for your entire neighbourhood, and there's going to be a
pretty significant amount of gas that needs to vent.

Also, I'm not sure if this is the case with methane, but propane has a really
fun property... Going from compressed/liquified propane to gas propane has a
high enough latent heat of vaporization that it can cool the surrounding
liquid enough to freeze it (!!!). There was a court case around here a few
years ago with a propane truck that blew a valve and started venting propane
to the atmosphere. The liquid->gas transition cooled off the valve so much
that a solid propane plug formed and stopped the leak (-188 degC!).
Temporarily, of course... the plug eventually thawed, the gas continued
escaping, and things got bad again. Having devices that could experience
similar behaviour installed at peoples' homes seems pretty dangerous to me.

It's all a shitty situation. Really, this is on the gas company. Their pumps
should have never gotten the lines pressurized like this, and _they_ should
have had mechanisms in place to vent it in a controlled and safe fashion.

------
ainiriand
The US really need to get their shit together with how the taxes are used.
Dams, roads, bridges, pipelines, water cleansing... All that needs maintenance
and it is not being done.

~~~
tallanvor
You're comparing apples to oranges. Gas lines, electric lines, and telecom
infrastructure is usually privately owned (or through a limited public
utility), so your taxes don't fund maintenance for them.

~~~
inetknght
It sounds like you're making an argument against private utility companies

------
jorblumesea
Infrastructure in the US is really old and very dangerous. 100+ years old and
ready to fall apart. Sadly, not really surprised.

------
vondur
From what I understand, some repair work was being performed. Apparently the
gas infrastructure there is some of the oldest in the nation.

~~~
GW150914
I used to live in Andover, MA in a prior existence, and while the town is very
rich it is also as they say, very historic. I wouldn’t be shocked if the
infrastructure was ancient. As for Lawrence (disclaimer: it may have changed)
it was a seriously poor former mill town, and I wouldn’t be shocked if their
infrastructure and services were in awful shape.

------
peterwwillis
From 2016: Methane Hazard Lurks in Boston's Aging, Leaking Gas Pipes, Study
Says [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30032016/boston-
natural-g...](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30032016/boston-natural-gas-
pipelines-leaking-methane-climate-change-explosion)

------
joezydeco
Something similar happened in Chicago in 1992.

[https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/blowing-
smoke/Content?...](https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/blowing-
smoke/Content?oid=883188)

------
fipple
This is just bad infrastructure design. The gas line grid should have a safety
vent that blows open in an abandoned field at some pressure between the
operating pressure of the line and the maximum pressure the houses can handle.

------
bitxbit
Natural gas infrastructure in New England and MA in particular is horrible. A
big part of the reason why prices remain high (3-4x vs New York) in the region
despite the recent fracking boom. Incidents such as this do not help.

~~~
emodendroket
As I recall the biggest thing was that the pipelines are insufficient and so
in the winter it has to be shipped by sea.

------
osazuwa
Security people, any chance at all this was caused by hacking some utilities
SCADA somewhere? Tell me the Russians or the Chinese can't turn our houses
into bombs...

------
draxofavalon
Is there any possibility that this was caused by hackers?

~~~
haggy
That idea has been floating around a lot. It's definitely not outside the
realm of possibility, though what makes me think is was human error is the
fact that Columbia Gas (company responsible for those lines) publicly
announced work on the lines about a week before this happened.

~~~
draxofavalon
I could also be that a week before the hack started. I know that my line of
thinking is very "Mr Robot". Let's hope it's not a hack and it's just human
error.

------
curuinor
Hasn't there been a lockout of employees for a while, and folks were getting
replaced by scabs?

~~~
p_rude
All I can find is lockouts of National Grid workers and replacing them with
scabs. They news is reporting that these are Columbia Gas lines.

------
tlb
We don't know if the cause is hacking, but it's likely that gas main pressure
is controlled by a computer. It'd be shocking if a software failure could
cause dozens of fires.

~~~
digikata
I'd speculate that the simplest root cause might be an system overpressure.
Any hookup to a valve that couldn't contain a pressure of some level could be
susceptible to leaking gas onto an ignition source which could then start a
fire.

~~~
tlb
It's surely overpressure, beyond what the regulators at each house can hold
back. The question is why, and whether such a thing could be caused by hacking
a SCADA system.

A gas explosion (claimed to be among the biggest non-nuclear explosions) was
caused by the CIA hacking a soviet pipeline:
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1455559/CIA-
plot-led-to-huge-blast-in-Siberian-gas-pipeline.html)

~~~
IAmGraydon
It’s peculiar to me that you have repeatedly attempted to create a rumor that
it was hackers even though there is no evidence to support that. Are you
playing at something or just enjoy spreading misinformation?

~~~
VLM
What seems strange is IF someone had root on a enemy nation's natgas
distribution plant, a short spike resulting in a handful of explosions is the
third least effective attack I can think of (the least being doing nothing,
second least effective being some kind of blackmail attempt). Performing
almost any other conscious action would be more destructive to life and
property and economy. Therefore unless its literally accidental (like the SQL
slammer attack decades ago causing DOS via flooding) there almost certainly
can not be hacking / terror involvement.

Yet its also too destructive and attention seeking to be a plausible threat or
sending a message; if outsiders messed with the SCADA to do this, fifteen
minutes later all the passwords would be changed and sites physically locked
down, such that a threat to do something more destructive next time (or
else..) such as flicking the gas supply off for a couple minutes would be a
non-starter. You have to look at it militarily like a stealth attack; giving
away your position is not a wise first move if your whole strategy is stealth.
You get one shot and this would be an intentional miss, so ...

This would also imply its not an inside job; an insider would know that in my
state (admittedly not MA, thankfully) an interruption in pressure requires an
attempt at physical access by a rep with a leak sensor to verify pilot light
and pilot light safety interlock for EVERY point of use and/or door tag
notification warnings. Its happened to me a couple of times for some street
work replacing pipes and replacement of my old meter. Its kind of an expensive
labor job, a wealth transfer from the company to the union. The fact this
didn't happen kind of exonerates the union.

So rule out outsiders and insiders. A nutjob would probably drive a truck into
an above ground facility, or frankly, just drive into people, so its probably
not a nut. Not many options left. Space aliens did it accidentally? Maybe they
closed down that solar observatory in NM because the space aliens are coming
to mess with our delicious natgas.

