20 gas explosions in Massachusetts just now!!!

What are the criteria for the FBI and the NTSB to get involved?

Hopefully. Still no statement from them. Or all clear (obviously).

"My step-father and uncle both worked for Colombia Gas, but are now retired. They heard from people they know who still work there that they connected a low pressure line (1/3 pound) to a high pressure line (99 pound) by mistake. From what they've told me, there aren't regulators on the low pressure systems and it blew the internals of everyone's appliances apart."

Thanks, Good to hear.

Check this out. Gas line cyber attack.


[link to securityaffairs.co (secure)]

That aggravated me and was the first time I've ever seen that happen. Again...Lawrence.

That is impossible, red top valves and galvanized gas pipe in homes hold more pressure then the lines running in the ground under the street.

I guess the water heaters and things with open jets could have blow torched causing fire in homes.

cyber attack?

The additive Mercaptan is added at the refinery so that it by the time it makes it to the residence, it should always be detected.
I've worked as a gas fitter for a few years and the smell of rotten eggs is something i never get used to

That's National Grid. Locked out unionize gas companies.

Your correct, this does not sound right to have a gas leak to travel that much of distance. High pressure mains are not usually set in residential neighborhoods. What normally happens, if the main drop pressure suddenly there are protections, when a major pressure drop in the line the station sensors would automatically shut down the fuel immediately. The only other time that something like this happened was in San Bruno CA.. I'm looking at this from the perspective of some one who work many years in the LNG and propane industry.


San Bruno pipeline explosion

The San Bruno pipeline explosion occurred at 6:11 pm PDT on September 9, 2010, in San Bruno, California, a suburb of San Francisco, when a 30-inch (76 cm) diameter steel natural gas pipeline owned by Pacific Gas & Electric exploded into flames in the Crestmoor residential neighborhood 2 mi (3.2 km) west of San Francisco

International Airport near Skyline Boulevard and San Bruno Avenue. The loud roar and shaking led some residents of the area, first responders, and news media to initially believe that it was an earthquake or that a large jetliner had crashed. It took crews nearly an hour to determine it was a gas pipeline explosion. As of September 29, 2010, the death toll was eight people. The United States Geological Survey registered the explosion and resulting shock wave as a magnitude 1.1 earthquake. Eyewitnesses reported the initial blast "had a wall of fire more than 1,000 feet high".

[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

A faulty valve seal at the street sent gas alongside the pipe into a house here. It went boom several years ago.
I heard it from 12 miles away.

Last Edited by hillbilly on 09/13/2018 09:54 PM

Not all points. Example: furnaces. They turn off and on automatically. To do this they have to be easy to turn. These could have weaker areas that would leak.

Thank you, good info, another poster heard the same thing from one of the workers.

@eyethespy via twitter saying that this was a FF and that the MASS state Police were colluding with left wing groups ( resistance ).....

[link to twitter.com (secure)]

i suggest we ban gas.

So it is not a clear cut and dried issue of overpressurization? Is that why the FBI and NTSB are involved?

Praying for the first responders who are doing an amazing job - as I have been listening to the scanner. Now they are having to deal with human being issues on top of all this like fighting and gang activity.

Vapers.

This was flatulence?

Each home has a regulator, to over come any main pressure deferences. There are also Regulator Stations through out the city in different section of the grid. It's all computerize, any major change in pressure is detected and adjusted to the proper pressure. A major leak is the system should shut thing down immediately.


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can a cyber attack over-ride those controls? increase pressure?

Actually, here in the northeastern U.S., MOST (not all) gas meters are INSIDE houses, usually in the basement. The gas pipe that comes in from the street is strong non-flex steel pipe, which connects to the main gas meter in the basement. That's where the shut-off valves are (one pre-meter, one post-meter.)

So the only possible flexible piping would be inside the houses, and AFTER the meter.

I can also tell you that the ONLY place that flexible gas pipe is allowed to be used is to a stove or to a gas-heated clothing dryer. All other gas pipe connections must be non-flex steel.

So it seems to me that what happened here is that the pressure went up so high, it blew out the regulators in the gas meters themselves; filled up all or part of the basement, and BOOM.

Of course, I'm just speculating based on my own personal experience.

I know that when I lived in DeKalb County Georgia for a few years, the gas meters were OUTSIDE.

Maybe why the FBI is in there now.

70-100 structures

“They have yet to talk to Columbia Gas”. Per the news. Are you kidding me.

Lots of gangs and drugs

"... but the attack did not impact operational technology."

it looks like that attack was just for data, not operational control.

CAN a hacker take control of operational systems?