Someone who didn't call dig alert.....

[sii]

On the topic of big bangs...before I moved away from my small Iowa town there used to be a couple of guys who were in the business of cutting up all of the underground steel gas tanks that were removed from gas stations. They would remove all of the manway fittings and rinse the tank with detergent and water, then cut the tank with an oxy/acetylene torch. Anyway, they had a pair of tanks sitting in the yard and had washed one out the previous day. Apparently when the first guy showed up the next morning, he forgot which one was clean and cut into the other one. My high school was about 3 1/2 miles away and the ground shook when it blew up. Supposedly there were somewhere around 160 windows blown out of houses and businesses in town. The guy survived but he is completely deaf and never leaves the house to this day.

 

[brantmacga]

I would think a high presure gas line would be marked as such above ground. I'd also think that it would have a obvious right away. . . . ..

In my area, they're only marked every so often.

I know the location of an Atlanta Gas Light backbone pipe that goes across the state, and its not marked. You only know its there because a huge valve is sticking out of the ground in a field with a small fence around it. It lists what cities it is running between, and the gas co's phone number. That's about it.


Every now and then you'll spot a small sign along its path that's about 10" high and 6" wide that says "caution; buried gas line" or something like that.

 

[hillbilly1]

I had a freind of mine that owned a utility boring company, was boring in south Atlanta, went thru a sewer line and a gas line. The gas went up the sewer and blew up a couple of houses down the street, luckly nobody was home! He claimed that the lines were missmarked. After the ensuing lawsuit, he sold the business.

 

[KentAT]

The snopes report says that the explosion was due to corrosion on the line, and not due to digging. Also nobody was killed, but 5 people were injured.

The snopes report corrections, mentioning the corrosion and quotes from the company that owns the pipeline, are correct. I would know. :wink: