- Author
-
National Transportation Safety Board
- Title
- Pipeline Accident Report: Low-Pressure Natural Gas Distribution System, Burlington, Iowa, November 6, 1969.
- Coporate
- National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, DC
- Report
-
SS-P-4; NTSB-PAR-70.1
October 14, 1970
55 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
natural gas
|
low pressures
|
pipeline
|
accidents
|
standards
- Abstract
- At 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 6, 1969, during a highway construction project in Burlington, Iowa, a bulldozer weighing 70,000 pounds drove over and partially collapsed the steel covers of a gas regulator pit, damaging the regulator. The regulator served to reduce high-pressure gas from about 55 p.s.i.g. to low pressure for distribution to 7,500 customers of the Iowa Southern Utilities Company (ISU) in this east Iowa town of 33,000 people. While the pressure was partially controlled by a monitoring or safety regulator, gas, reportedly at four to five times the normal operating pressure, entered the distribution system. At 1:55 p.m. gas customers in the affected area started reporting high gas pilots and fires to ISU and the fire department. The high-pressure gas source was turned off about 2:20 p.m., but fires continued to be reported until 4:30 p.m. The fires wrought major damage to the interiors of 10 houses and minor damage to kitchens and appliances in 42 others. Property damage was estimated at $80,000.