An estimated 60 to 80 fires, 3 explosions, and numerous gas leaks were reported last night in the towns around Lawrence, MA (north of Boston). The incident has been linked to lines operated by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts. Columbia Gas has not released an official cause yet, but MEMA (The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency) and some of the local firefighters have speculated that the cause was an over-pressurized gas line. Columbia was conducting planned upgrades on the lines at the time of the incident. One person has been killed; 25 more have been injured.
I was listening to the fire radio as it happened and it sounded like complete chaos -- it was just the dispatch, but there was not a single moment of silence as they scrambled to get crews to all of the affected areas and coordinate the response across four separate towns (Lawrence, Andover, North Andover, and Methuen.) The local first responders were initially asking residents to shut off their gas lines; this quickly changed to calls for all Columbia Gas customers to evacuate, which then increased to an order for immediate evacuation of the entire area. Overnight police and fire officials were going door-to-door enforcing the evacuation, and it is not known at this time when residents may be allowed to return. The electric service has been shut down to the entire area to limit possible sources of ignition, and officials have stated there are over 8000 homes which need to be individually inspected before the residents can return.
So far, Columbia Gas has not provided any confirmation or explanation of the exact cause of this disaster...but I'm sure we've got some people here who have some speculation to offer...
The local Eagle Tribune has a number of articles with further information, and there's limited coverage in national sources like CNN.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday September 14 2018, @10:31PM (2 children)
You have to pump gas in as it is consumed, but you must take care never to pump in too much:
Back in the day a pro-western Soviet citizen snuck a "shopping list" out to the CIA. Among the items the Soviets wanted was a Scada system for controlling high pressure gas pipes. Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. SCADA systems are the most common Human Life Critical software and hardware around.
With Commander-In-Chief Reagan's specific written authorization, the Soviets "managed" to obtain a SCADA system.
Everything was cool for a while but then all the pumps started running at full speed. Eventually a very long piece of high pressure gas pipe exploded. Can I find the [needed citation]?
Yes. [prisonplanet.com]
(Emphasis Added.)
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Saturday September 15 2018, @09:45AM (1 child)
That's what happens when you use proprietary software for critical systems ;)
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday September 15 2018, @03:46PM
The founder of Trihedral Engineering told me that VTS - now VTScada - was "a million-line program that's only half done".
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]