Lightweight Building Construction Helps Prevent a Major Disaster
FIRE REPORTS
二十五家火灾公司回应了一个主要的燃气管线爆炸，导致10,000平方英尺的超市崩溃的全部崩溃。当屋顶抬起并在超市的搁架上休息时，建筑物的所有52座的居住者都奇迹般地逃过了吹出的墙壁。
A one-story, 80 X 120-foot cinder block wall structure covered by a roof assembly of lightweight roll-bar steel truss and Q decking housed a supermarket selling floor in the Davis Creek area outside of South Charleston, W.Va,
在街对面，75英尺远，挖掘机组人员正在努力安装风暴排水管。在大约12日中午，机组人员不小心出土了一段时间已经过时的3英寸气体管道。瓦斯的气味不仅渗透了工作区域，而是通过超市中的52人开始注意到。
报告泄漏后，船员开始搜索管道上的截止阀。这被证明是无果蝇，因为道路蒙上了先前的管道位置。尽管如此，搜索仍在继续，商店中的气味增加。
他们的重金属机械造成的，其沉重的机械导致3英寸的管道在其末端的“T”裂缝 - 一个4英寸高压气体供应管线，在45 psi下输送天然气。这一事件中未被发现的这种破裂位于超市的停车场之后。
Gas under pressure began leaking through the porous ground area up to the blacktop of the parking lot. The gas is believed to have spread horizontally to the excavation hole and to have found its way into the hollow cinder block of the supermarket. The gas, with its lighter than air consistency, began to fill the walls and the 10,000square-foot cockloft space formed by the lightweight truss roof construction and drop ceilings. The gas odor continued for approximately two hours.
At 1:56 p.m., witnesses heard a loud rumbling noise, followed by a sudden fiery explosion. The entire roof assembly lifted 10 to 20 feet into the air and all four walls, losing their integrity, crumbled, with the exception of part of the rear wall that leaned diagonally against a parked delivery truck. This fact was to provide additional fire control later on. The roof came down to rest on the tops of the store’s refrigeration, storeroom and shelving.
—照片由Kenny Kemp。
第二次爆炸，其次是大火条件，发生在初始爆炸后几秒钟。它被认为是在商店后部的现在破裂的气体线点火。
—照片由Kenny Kemp。
Arriving fire fighters from the Davis Creek Volunteer Fire Department were faced with heavy fire and smoke conditions in and around the totally collapsed structure. They positioned their pumper in close proximity to the disaster area, and a call for assistance was sent to the Charleston and South Charleston Fire Departments. Before the incident was concluded, 25 fire companies had responded with manpower, tankers and equipment.
Water supply
最初，唯一的供水是由助力罐提供的手线。
南查尔斯顿市距离商店约有3000英尺，安装了能够提供150 psi的消防栓。这款消防栓仅在南查尔斯顿市限制外保护南查尔斯顿市车库和维修店的目的。
南查尔斯顿抵达消防栓，拉伸1200英尺的3英寸水管。Charleston的Pumper通过距离南查尔斯顿的额外1200英尺伸展到足够接近的点来提供距离大卫溪部门的第一泵发动机的点来完成内联。
起草池被设置为储存的后部，并由大约七个旋转的油轮卡车提供。
Sixteen ambulances were dispatched from Kanawha County Emergency Authority. Ten went to the scene and six stood by at a staging area set up a mile from the incident. A triage site was established approximately 100 yards from the explosion site to treat and remove any victims requiring medical attention. Injuries were suspected to be more serious than they actually were. Fire and rescue efforts were coordinated by Davis Creek Fire Chief Jack Vaness and Kanawha County Director William White.
Strategy and tactics
The fire strategy was to position water between the fire in the rear of the store and the area thought to still contain approximately 10 to 15 trapped civilians. An exposure fire problem, a 12-room house, was 30 feet from the rear of the store. A fire that immediately had communicated to a small portion of the house was rapidly controlled and extinguished. The radiant heat source was controlled and the house saved because of hand lines played on the house during fire fighting, and because a large soda delivery truck, located between the point source of the fire and the house, held up the supermarket’s collapsed lightweight wall that absorbed most of the radiant heat.
With hose lines positioned at the fire in the store, rescue efforts intensified. A command post was established and lists of the missing persons prepared.
消防员不仅要推出火焰，而且还要检查生命的大面积倒塌的碎片。随着这些努力持续，厚厚的黑烟云越来越多地进入空中，因为偶尔的气体爆发的气体突出的火灾爆炸。
最初认为碎片下有至少10名受害者，但所有搜索都证明了负面。在商店内报道的所有人都奇迹般地发现了自己的方式通过围绕它们的吹墙体安全。最终结果是在爆炸期间位于商店的52人中，只能从附近的医院设施待遇19种现场。十七种患有相对轻微的切口和擦伤，少数人报告了耳膜损伤，只有两个遭受的二级烧伤了20％的身体。他们也被释放了。
全国运输安全委员会举办了一次性听力，以确定这一事件周围的实际原因和事件。
批判
It is thought at this time that the leaking gas found its way into all the structure’s open wall spacings and cockloft. Banking down, the gas must have found one of many ignition sources, e.g., refrigeration, air conditioning, lighting, and circuits.
The secondary explosion and large fire in the rear of the store is thought to have been caused by the rupture of the store’s gas metering devices.
这家商店的新型非洲堡垒，轻量级桁架结构通常是对消防员的不利，导致五分钟火灾曝光率崩溃。然而，在这种情况下，它没有通过这种轻质型结构无意中允许“超市的”爆炸“通风，结果已经逆转。较重的建筑物将含有爆炸压力和火灾，引起了许多平民死亡，压力，较重的屋顶装配构件的压力和增加的重量。轻质屋顶不仅容易抬起，为爆炸过程中的压力升起提供瞬时垂直通风，但销售地板架子很容易支持，提供困难的平民通过吹入的外壳壁快速出口。
照片由Gary Scott
The numerous questions surrounding this incident will be reported in a follow-up feature.
