20 gas explosions in Massachusetts just now!!!

IIRC most underground gas lines are at 10 psi or upgraded to 60psi.
And then regulators at each building to drop it down further to 3-5 depending on furnace/boiler/etc.
So if a compression station on the pipeline system went fucky, and ALL of its safety controls and relief valves failed AND the pressure STILL blew past EACH building or house's own regulator then that is a major strange occurence indeed. There are ALOT of safety devices in place to prevent this. A computer hack that caused a gas compression station to overpressurize is one thing, but there are alot of physical/mechanical relief valves/diaphragm rupture disks/regulators that are unhackable.

So maybe not "overpressurization".

One thing it could be, is that in winter the gas companies inject butane or other high BTU gas into the 'natural gas' stream to boost BTU without increasing volume or pressure. Maybe some extra high BTU gas got injected by accident? Maybe sour gas?

Or a fire occured inside the pipes and its a giant fougasse now. No way to stop it until it burns itself out.

One thing for sure- somethings fucky!

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Thanks for the quick education.

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It seems to just be a few structures in the area affected. They could have had faulty pressure regulators at those locations.