Had to be some rusty old pipe. Better have been if that guy's gonna keep his job.

Yes, the strip club pipe joke was inevitable I suppose.

I bet his wife made him do it after getting caught.

Lots of old, corroded/worn-out infrastructure out there, expect to see more of this until the utilities figure out that human safety is more important than their bottom line....

Unless of course, evil government makes them be responsible.

JM83

He punctured a pipe. What was the pipe made of? I'm assuming its not up to modern day codes.

Smaller gas pipes are made out of thermoplastic. These are absolutely up to modern codes because of the long term effect of natural gas on most metals.

I hate to bust your bubble and sense of security, but modern high pressure gas line is orange PBV tubing. It is puncture resistant to some extent but if you really work at it, you can poke a hole with a probe. That's why you don't use them anymore, you call the guys at SM&P and let them scope it for you.

This was probably a rusty old steel pipe (a leak at a corroded elbow or coupling is probably what caused the original leak that the occupants were able to smell.) The threaded areas are the thinnest and weakest parts. Steel pipes and distribution lines cannot be expected to last over 50 years, and there are probably underground gas pipes over 80 years of age in many cities (interior piping, too.) Gas light infrastructure was in place before the cities were electrified.

These are the old cities where wooden water mains are occasionally excavated - still in use.

I do find it strange that it appears from the way the article was written that the gas company employee was able to rupture a gas like with what in all likelihood, was a sniffer probe. If he could do that I have to think that there was something wrong with that pipe or he was trying to rupture it. Then again, they smelled gas leaking and called him so you know the pipe was compromised. I just can't see blaming him for it.

He is a utility worker,the pipe was no doubt corroded and he won't lose his job.This could have happened in Anyplace,USA.I don't wish him to lose his job and I'm sorry for those who were injured.However,it is good to see a strip club leveled.

Wow, trolls in every thread.

the strip club was the day care for the daddy's.Same catagory,different age group.

You should see the pacifiers!

HANK!!!!! lol that was bad but it was darn good....lol

The dancers have to drop off their kids someplace.

The girls need to drop their kids off somewhere before work ..... lol.

DaveK-1110204

Does anyone else think it is odd that a strip club would be so close to a daycare?

Only if you think that most strippers aren't single mothers.

I could say that it was a convienient place to drop the kids while I dropped in for a lap-dance, but seriously, day-care is usually open 6 or 7 am till 6 or 7 pm, while strip clubs usually do most of their business after dark. There may be a little overlap, but not much. I'll bet the strip club has been there longer than the day care center. I'm certainly glad I'm not the only one who thought of the pipe/strip club jokes.

To answer Dave, "no".

Who would dare fire a man who can shove a steel rod through a steel gas main? Hulk strong!

JohnCarter-428979

Who would dare fire a man who can shove a steel rod through a steel gas main? Hulk strong!

Spoken like a true Martian.

I read this story on AP first, and NBC left out a critical fact. Gas mains are marked on streets and sidewalks with painted lines and symbols. Workers use these marks to find the pipes. In fact, the lines were in the wrong place in this case. The worker believed he was in the correct, safe spot to do his probe test, but he was not. If anyone loses their job over this, it would (should) be the laborer who painted the markers in the wrong place. Of course, nobody who only reads NBC would know this.

steel toed boot.........

Of course, by laborer, you mean the guy that came up from the union hall and didn't have any idea about anything except getting time and half for taking a nap , right?

If that's what you're thinking, I hate to break it to you, it doesn't work that way. They just don't call up the laborers union and give someone a can of paint and tell them 'go do a mark-out at such and such a place'.

Clearly the result of faulty logic. The explosion occurred because not enough G strings were stuffed.

Yeah, send him lots of ones so he can conduct an intensive, personal investigation of the issue.

Pat Robertson wears a G-String?

Phuck you jack ass!!

Wassa Matta Duane, is your Cult Leader Pat?

Wow, you think Duane might possibly be a simpering fan-boy who sends a significant sum of his monthly income to that charlatan Pat Robertson?

So what you're saying is; Duane has been stuffing $$$ into Pat's G-String.

It just occurred to me Duane might be upset because he now has an image of Pat Robertson in a G-String engraved in his brain.

For that I need to apologize.

Yup. And we all know how well Oregonians can recognize a cult. Took over a whole town if i remember right.

Tried to kill a bunch of Oregonians too because they rejected him.

Pretty much every State has their cults.

Pat gets mainstream support. The Bhagwan moved his fools to a tiny isolated town in Oregon. Pat is on the TV reaching billions of fools.

The Bhagwan was run out of the State, Pat just keeps on spewing. Like recently when he absolved Petraeus for the adultery, ASSuming Broadwell was throwing herself at him.

Pat Robertson? In Mass? I think a few of you need new compasses. Why not speak of the Mass politicians who spent twenty years pushing for more natural gas because it was supposedly very cheap (although it is not cheap)?

Fracking for natural gas to keep naked pole dancers warm in New England--because the nation cares about the little people. (Smurfs dig boobs)

Pat Robertson? In Mass?

You Betcha. It is called Television.

Pat almost always blames catastrophes that happen near what he determines to be "sin" to be God in action. For instance when Orlando and Disney World allowed a privately sponsored "Gay Day" event Pat warned them that God would send all sorts of horrible things, maybe even a meteor.

Pat wasn't in Florida.

JO... common man.... Pat... really? (Flame shakes his head) ... The REAL issue is that the Gas Co. @ last report was defending the Employee... it sound like the city doesn't want the liability and is trying to blame the Utility

Flame

It is just that this is the perfect kind of event for Pat to blame sin. He has done it so many times.

Pat doesn't care about what the real issues are.

When the Earthquake hit Haiti Pat said it was because Haitian's made a pact with the Devil in the slave rebellion of 1791. All because they didn't want to be slaves.

When Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke Pat said it was because Sharon divided God's land.

When speaking about the privately sponsored "Gay Days" in Orlando Pat said:

I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you, This is not a message of hate -- this is a message of redemption. But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs; it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor

When the people of Dover, PA voted out a school board that wanted intelligent design taught in schools (I agree that it should be) Pat said:

I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected him from your city. And don't wonder why he hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for his help because he might not be there.

The Washington DC earthquake "was a sign from God".

He connected Hurricane Katrina to legalized abortion.

He claimed prayer would have kept the Midwest Tornadoes away.

This explosion has Pat chomping at the bit, but his people have shortened his leash.

I think the main must have been shut off as there was no big flame after the blast. But the volume of gas in the pipe beyond the valve was enough to cause the explosion.

I love the holier than thou BS about the day care question. This is a city, I wonder how close the churches are to liquor stores...OMG I think God invented strippers, and alcohol.

Gas lines are not so easy to shut off - the accessible valves control a large network of mains and distribution pipes. They are all full of pressurized gas, so all that gas volume must leak out the hole before it stops. You need to know the location of the leak to know where to shut it off - is it a through main or a distribution branch?

Plus, shutting off service to a large group of customers can cause a lot of problems. Their appliances should all have safety devices that detect that the pilot went out, or that the ignitor won't light a flame when it tries. But if one cutoff does not work as it should, there will be another leak (inside a building.) Sometimes it is safer to keep the normal service pressure as much as possible.

For individual service (underground), it is sometimes very difficult to shut off the underground pipe. It usually requires a backhoe and time.

now that is a scarey thought.bet she was talking politics at the same time.

The explosive limits for methane in air are between 4.4% and 15%. Less than 4.4%, or more than 15%, and you just get fire. (Much less, or much more and you don't even get fire.) Still, that's a fairly wide explosive range, so methane explosions are fairly common, and very impressive.

Fuel/air explosions tend to produce a large overpressure over a wide area, unlike ordinary TNT bombs. That makes their demolition effects very large. The US military's MOAB (Mother of all bombs) GBU-43/B, similar to the BLU-82 used in the Gulf War, is considered the world's largest non-nuclear explosive. Most of the Iraqi's directly killed by fuel/air blasts had their chests crushed by the force of the explosion. Many who were hiding in bunkers and caves were asphyxiated because all of the oxygen in those confined spaces was consumed.

Dang John Carter, for a Barsoomian, you're uncommonly well informed about chemistry, Military grade explosives and physics! You must be a Martian spy, here to infiltrate our society prior to an invasion :)

Seriously, I'm impressed by your level of knowledge! Always good to see someone use actual facts in a discussion, rather than vague opinions.

The mixture in that house on the south side of Indianapolis must have been smack in the middle of the optimum range (and the house must have been completely filled with it, basement to ceiling of second floor.)

The blast disintegrated two frame houses, started hot fires that skeletonized the two neighbors, and damaged 33 houses badly enough to result in condemnation and a demolition order. Big boom - the compression blew garage doors off the rails up to 1/4 mile away.

They can be grouped. Nuts with boobs, or boobs with nuts.

Yes, it seems like a very dumb way to find a gas leak. One would've thought the worker would've had much more modern technology.

Good question here. I use a probe everyday to locate underground pipelines. From small 3/4 inch plastic water lines to 36 inch steel gas mains. Water lines are tested to 200 psi, gas mains at 800 psi or more. After 30+ years I've never punctured either. A 800 psi gas main would blow apart on its own long before you could puncture it with a probe. There's more to this story, that just doesn't happen.

He wasn't using a metal probe on the pipe..What would you suggest a person use to push the end of a sensor into the compacted earth???a Feather???

A metal probe pushed into the soil and found a weak point in a most likely rusty old pipe caused the leak...sometimes these old pipes are not as deep as they should be and a rookie thinking it is a rock and pushed down to hard or hit it with a hammer to hard will most likely be the outcome.

Or he could have just opened the pocket that was already around the leaking pipe. Everyone had an OH shoot moment and ran for cover

But three rights make a left. And two Wrights made an airplane.

There's no connecting door? The children are skipping day care to watch the strippers? Strippers are soliciting the kids? There's a drug trade going on between the two? The kids are running protection for the girls?

Why don't you tell us? Are you concerned the children might ask  questions? 

Oh no, we can't have that! They must NEVER find out that the stork didn't bring them! Their poor little minds! Oh, woe!!!

Agreed. Keep your kids away from strip clubs.

Nothing in this article says they were side-by-side. As for the picture, there is nothing wrong with it - it's all in the eyes of the beholder.

The day care center provided a valuable service to fathers wanting to go to the strip club.

Wrong story - I hope.

dont be hard on McCain its hard to get up out of a coffin to be irrelevant.

Not everything. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to get crushed is it still human error?

seek help asap

Just Daddys reminding themselves that it's their job to keep their daughters off the pole.