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Troopers with an infrared camera in a copter caught another gas leak before it could explode last night
By adamg on Fri, 09/14/2018 - 3:11pm
State Police report troopers in a helicopter were able to direct Lawrence firefighters to an unseen gas leak under a Lawrence street around 11 p.m. yesterday:
Trooper Eric Fairchild, the mission’s Tactical Flight Officer, was monitoring the aircraft’s FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) camera when he observed an anomaly under the pavement at the intersection of Broadway and Andover Street. The flight crew advised the Lawrence Fire Department of the observation. Firefighters responded and discovered a major gas leak under the pavement.
Through their attention to detail, the crew of MSP Air 5 likely prevented another catastrophic event. The photos show the gas leak underground as detected by the Air Wing.
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Comments
Well done!
Very nicely done. He deserves a medal!
I thought it was a joke at first
Reminded me of those mud flaps you always see...
Mermaid Version
Mermaid Version
Baker puts another gas company in charge of recovery
Says he lost faith in Columbia Gas and will have Eversource figure out how to fix things.
Andover Town Manager Andrew Flanagan praised the move:
Columbia screwed the pooch, big time
There will be big fines, at least. And lots of lawsuits.
I see a quick bankruptcy for Columbia
and all of upper management moving their personal assets to the Caymans.
Meanwhile, not the 1st Columbia Gas negligence
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/09/14/columbia-gas-faulted-federa...
With all this gas floating
With all this gas floating around, didnt anyone smell the mercaptan anywhere? Not saying this to diminish the good work of the wing by any means. Just havent heard the news starttions mention this once, and I have seen rail cars of it at a Columbia Gas facility, not local to Merrimac Valley, but nevertheless they are familiar with it .
What is Mercaptan?
https://www.columbiagasma.com/en/stay-safe/when-you-smell-gas/what-is-me...
Yes, they did smell it
We must have been watching different TV accounts, because I saw several reports about it (typically an anchor asking the reporter in Lawrence if he was smelling gas) and know somebody who lives in Lawrence who got headaches after smelling the stuff for several hours.
Subsidiaries
Now Columbia Gas isn't just their own operation, right? They're owned by a larger energy conglomerate NiSource.
I would be curious as to the track-record of the parent organization, beyond just the individual subsidiary. I'd also be interested in knowing their influence on Beacon Hill, as they have their own PAC.
I saw something on TV last night...
...apparently, they've blown up more stuff in the US than the Taliban.
What I can't understand is why so many residential gas meters didn't block the overpressure.
This pic never gets old (but it's from 2012)
Yup. The only parts of the city leak free are the Walcott side of Readville and upper Fairmount hill, with a few leak free patches here and there.
https://mcsmeters.com/collections/gas-regulators-1
There's one on my meter outside. I think they vent off overpressure, which isn't ideal if your meter is in the house, but if it's outside, it's better than nothing.
I remember the old maxitrol valves behind stoves, they limited the pressure without venting. I believe they still use them.
I'll suggest that possibly the houses that got damaged/destroyed had meters in the basement without overpressure limiters on them.
Wait and see. The gas systems in this country go back a century to the old coal gas days. The system needs updating.
This is why drip tees are still required. They used to serve as a trap to keep condensed coal gas solids out of the appliances. I suppose maybe they just don't want to eliminate them from the code.
The meters may have blocked overpressure
Won't help if 120 year old coal gas lines crack in random places.
Some of the fires and explosions were in houses that didn't have gas service.
Yup
I believe the yellow lines represent external leaks. Can you imagine if everyone in Boston suddenly turned off their gas meters?
Backpressure...place would probably look like Dresden in fifteen minutes.
FLIR cameras are amazing
I have the one for the Iphone (lightening connection) as a commissioning agent. You can see your hand print on a wall with it or your foot print on carpeting. Never thought to use it for a gas leak but makes sense.
You know it's a busy week in
You know it's a busy week in news when a story like this is barely getting national attention.
BBC covered it on their website
I’d say that qualifies as international attention.
Front Page of the NY Times?
Front page of WaPo?
Reuters alerts??
Maddow covered it on a par with the hurricane!
Kind of everywhere!
Also
It was on Fox News too. Also Daily Mail UK.
Um....
I’ve been traveling in Greece for the past ten days and saw the story reported on a Greek news channel and the BBC.
I don't watch the news but
I don't watch the news but definitely got a barrage of worried text messages from friends/family around the country who saw and wanted to check in
How does that work? Does a
How does that work? Does a gas leak generate heat even if it's not on fire?
Temperature difference
It isn't generating heat, it is just flowing at a different temperature than its surroundings.
Call Hopper
I think there's more trouble in underground tunnels.
Great job by the State Police Air Wing. Greatly underutilized.
I had the pleasure of meeting some of the Trooper pilots and touring one of the helicopters in the academy. One thing they said was "call us any time" for help. A few weeks out of the academy I had a murder and called them to track the suspect. My Sergeant (old-timer) was mad but the MSP Air Wing came right in. Suspect not caught that night but bragged about the murder in prison on unrelated charges and convicted of original murder.
I'm interested in the legality of Charlie Baker bringing in Eversource. I'm not opposed to it, just questioning the legality. It seems like the utilities have a monopoly on the cities and towns served. I'm wondering how Baker can overrule that and who is paying for Eversource since they are not the supplier in the affected areas.