Haz Mats In Your Backyard

Haz Mats In Your Backyard

HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

A quiet Texas city was shaken when overpressurization of a natural gas pipeline during a cleaning procedure led to its rupture and subsequent emission, ignition, and explosion of vaporized contents. The 30-hour operation successfully averted a disaster of enormous proportions.

For this Texas community, the gasoline pipeline running through town was nothing unusual. But when it ruptured, the ensuing fire incident was anything but ordinary.

WITH THE ADVENT of SARA Title III, CERCLA, RCRA, and a host of other intensive haz-mat legislation, fire departments around the country are focusing their attention on the highways, rail lines, and fixed facilities in their jurisdictions.

There is, however, a silent, menacing potential threat that lurks beneath most areas of the country.

Pipelines are advertised to be and are one of the safest ways to transport materials around the nation. Pipeline incidents have been infrequent. Because of their impressive safety record and adequate safeguards, fire departments tend to overlook their destructive potential.

Even so, the City of Baytown (Texas) Fire Department has responded to its share of pipeline emergencies. Several have ruptured and burned in the middle of vacant fields, creating awesome but basically nonthreatening displays of force. One natural gas pipeline ruptured a short distance from an elementary school. There was no fire, nor were there injuries; after a modest evacuation, life soon returned to normal.

There seemed to be no cause for concern. With the United States’ largest refinery within Baytown FD’s jurisdiction, the city’s firefighters were used to seeing pipeline corridors with 20 or more warning signs stretched across them. Even the crews at Fire Station Five gave little regard to the right-ofway running next to their base of operations.

All photos by Lt. Darrell Davis, Baytown Fire Department.

As the crews of Engine 50 and Tanker 51 began their 24-hour shift, events were evolving in the pipeline corridor—a scant 50 feet from where they ate their meals—that would keep them busy for over 24 hours and expose them to a potential disaster of enormous proportions.

There is a silent, menacing potential threat running underground beneath many areas of the United States.

A pipeline crew had shut down a teninch line carrying natural gasoline in anticipation of running a “pig” through the line to clean it and improve pumping efficiency* Something in this routine procedure went wrong, and at about 0920 on this cold, windy Veteran’s Day, this crew of four firefighters and the fifteen others called to assist them would rely on training, knowledge, courage, and a lot of good luck to carry them through until they were relieved at 0820 the next morning.

The intersection of Pin Oak Street and North Burnet Drive is familiar to anyone who works in Baytown’s District Five. Located less than a mile from Station Five, the area is a scenic blend of 30-year-old homes and large bayffont lots. A pipeline right-of-way cuts diagonally across the neighborhood.

*“Pigging” a line is the procedure of sending a device through a line for varied purposes. The pig, actually a shaft fitted with rubber cups and sized to the line, is propelled by the product moving through the line. Some “instrument” or “smart” pigs are electronic devices that can detect corrosion or damage to a line. A “displacement” pig is placed between the shipment of different products in the same line. Pigs are inserted into a line through launching barrels located in the line and removed through receiving barrels.

The firefighters on duty did not hear the explosion. Their first indication of trouble was the receipt of alarm #86759. When they raised the apparatus room doors to leave, however, they faced a massive column of thick, black smoke with orange flames boiling into the sky above.

This pipeline, which runs some 60 miles from Katy, Texas to an Exxon refinery in Baytown, had ruptured 100 feet before it crossed under Pin Oak Street. As would be discovered the next afternoon, a tear two feet long had opened up on top of the pipe and allowed natural gasoline to escape under pressure. The ensuing flammable vapor cloud soon surrounded the home at the corner of Pin Oak and North Burnet and proceeded across North Burnet toward Burnet Bay and the Houston Ship Channel. It is theorized that the water heater of the home across North Burnet provided the ignition source. The explosion that followed rumbled through the neighborhood and set off a wave of calls that overloaded the emergency phone lines to all agencies.

As Engine 50 proceeded down Pin Oak toward the fire, a growing column of smoke and fire loomed ahead. At 0929 the lieutenant ordered that the engine be stopped 300 feet short of the right-of-way and that company members proceed on foot to size up the situation. They found a ruptured, burning pipeline with a serious exposure problem on all sides. One house, downwind, was already burning, and another, upwind but closer to the rupture, was smoking. The owner of this second house was spraying his home with a garden hose, but his success was limited because of the enormous amount of heat generated by the blast.

The driver of E-50 was ordered to turn his pumper around in anticipation of a reverse lay. The lieutenant radioed to the shift captain a more detailed assessment of the situation and a request for more help. A second engine had already been dispatched on the initial call, and the captain ordered a third engine.

Natural gas from the ruptured pipeline escaped under pressure and found an ignition source in a home on the downwind side. A serious exposure problem existed on all sides of the fire. Because of the intense radiant beat, handlines were setup in strategic unmanned positions.

Fifteen mintues later, additional engine companies were called to set up supply and operate large-caliber streams on the rooftops of nearby exposures and to perform brand patrol.

The fire had divided the scene into two sectors, split by the intense heat across the right-of-way. The apparatus were effectively cut off from the burning house that was downwind of the fire source. This prompted the decision to apply water first on the houses on the “uninvolved” side, and a master stream was placed in operation to accomplish this strategy. A 2 1/2-inch handline was advanced across the right-of-way using the ditch on the opposite side of the road as a shield against the heat. Water was then trained on the burning structure. The firefighters on the line were taking a real beating from the heat, and as soon as the pipe holder was secured, this position was left unmanned.

With the arrival of additional help, two firefighters entered the burning house to undertake the search and rescue. At this early stage of the fire, all of the burning was outside the building except for a small burn-through in one corner bedroom. No occupants were found inside.

The captain arrived and assumed command. He continued the defensive strategy already begun and deployed the remaining engines and firefighters in a ring around the burning pipeline. A master stream, a 2‘/2-inch handline, and three 1 1/2-inch handlines were set up at strategic locations. 1 1/2-inch lines were stretched inside the burning house in an attempt to reclaim the structure. The gigantic source of radiant heat was not to be denied this one structure, however. Luckily, no other structures sustained more than minor damage.

At 1000 hours, pipeline ownership was contacted, and Exxon was notified immediately after. They arrived quickly and informed the commander of a new threat.

Running parallel to the ruptured line and less than three feet away from it was an eight-inch LPG pipeline. The intensity of the fire raised serious concern that another rupture might occur. All of the pipelines in this right-of-way were shut down except for a 24-inch crude line on the other side of the break. It was felt that, with a flow rate of one barrel per second, the crude moving through the line would help cool itself.

All nonessential personnel were evacuated from the immediate area and efforts were directed at cooling the LPG line. This line was a major concern until the fire was extinguished at 0947 the next day.

The nearest valves for the ruptured line were two miles away in one direction (in the refinery), and more than one mile in the other. These were closed and a flare stack was installed to speed removal of the product from the line. As pressure in the line decreased, the intensity of the fire subsided enough to allow extinguishment of the burning house.

Overhauling the burned house turned out to be a major task for the exhausted firefighters, but was completed without incident. Crews for Station Five remained on the scene until relieved by the oncoming shift at 0820. They extinguished the final flickers of flame at 10 a.m. and returned to quarters at 3:00 that afternoon.

The fire burned for 24 hours and 20 minutes. The fire department spent over 30 hours on the scene, pumped approximately one million gallons of water, and laid almost 6,000 feet of hose.

At the critique, we were able to come away with a number of lessons, both learned and reinforced. (See page 75.)

This neighborhood is peacefully green again. The destroyed house was rebuilt, the burned grass replanted, the pipeline repaired. This neighborhood is once again like scores of others across America—quietly concealing the hidden dangers of haz mats in backyards.

The ruptured natural gas pipeline. Further complications arose during firefighting operations when pipeline owners informed incident command that an eight-inch LPG pipeline was situated parallel to the ruptured line, just three feet away.

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