By Jerry Knapp and Daniel Moran
The contractor was using an underground boring tool when he hit and penetrated the plastic two-inch, 60-pound natural gas street main in a residential area of modular row houses. This pneumatically powered boring device pounded its way through the soil, tunneling from a trench on one side and under the roadway to the other side to reduce the cost of installing, in this case, a communication line. Natural gas leaked for an undetermined time and eventually leaked back into one of the nearby homes. The West Haverstraw (NY) Fire Department responded to this incident on January 16, 2012.
Knapp: My captain and I were checking nearby homes for gas with a four-gas meter, a common task for fire departments. The gas company technicians had been on the scene almost as long as the fire department, about 45 minutes prior to the explosion. We had not found any evidence of gas in any of the homes (I had our four-gas meter and a six-foot hook); there was not even an odor. The last home was locked. Based on a request by the utility technician to get in the house, we were waiting for a team with the forcible entry tools when the trapped gas inside exploded, completely shredding the house.
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