Gas Main Break Causes Blast, Fire, $2.7 Million Loss in Nebraska Town
Features
—Hastings, Neb., Fire Department photo
A gas explosion and fire, caused by a break in an 8-inch, 30-psi main as a result of frost heaving, made a disaster of the business section of Hastings, Neb.
The natural gas explosion at 1st St. and Hastings Ave. last Feb. 10 rocked the town, and the fire dispatcher began receiving numerous phone calls at 2:07 a.m. that Saturday. The losses to the three stores destroyed by the blast and the 160 other business occupancies damaged to some extent were estimated at $2.7 million.
Hastings, a typical midwest town of 27,500 population, has a fire department composed of a chief, assistant chief, three shift captains, 15 fire fighters, and 20 paid-on-call volunteers. At the time of the explosion, the normal six-man shift was one short due to an illness. Part of the responsibilities of the fire fighters is to take tours of duty in the alarm room. This left a four-man response for initial alarms during this shift.
Lines stretched
Captain Charles Sears responded to the initial alarm with Engines 4 and 5. There were three men on Engine 5 and one on Engine 4. The building was totally involved, and two of the three stores had been demolished. Rubble, glass, and merchandise cluttered the area for four blocks. The temperature was 6°F.
Engine 5 laid double lines of 3 and 2 1/2-inch hose from 1st St. and Lincoln Ave. Engine 4 stopped at the hydrant, hooked up the lines for Engine 5 and charged them. Engine 4 then proceeded to lay double lines from the middle of 2nd St., between Lincoln and Hastings Aves.
When approaching the fire, Sears ordered a second alarm, which brought in all off-duty fire fighters, officers, paidon-call volunteers, civil defense communication volunteers and the civil defense director, as well as notifying water, gas, and electrical companies, police, and medical units.
As acting chief at that time, I responded from my home 25 blocks away. I saw the glow at least 20 blocks away and ordered a mutual aid call for the Ayr Fire Department, which is part of the Hastings Rural Fire Protection, and the Juniata Fire Department. Each department responded with an engine and 10 men.
Fire out of control
When approaching the downtown district near 2nd St. and Burlington Ave., I saw that almost all the windows were blown out of the buildings and the fire was out of control.
The first off-duty Fire fighter who arrived at the station brought Ladder 1, an 85-foot aerial. The ladder truck was ordered to set up for a 750-gpm ladder pipe operation on the south side of the blast building and protect the exposed buildings to the north. Engine 5 had laid its hose to the south side of the building and began a holding action with a 500-gpm mounted deluge set.
As off-shift personnel arrived, Engine 4 laid two lines of 3-inch hose to the aerial and 2 1/2 and 1 1/2-inch lines to the alley for exposure protection. Engine 5 made up a 2 1/2-inch line also for use in the alley and to provide protection from the heat so fire fighters could hold their positions.
Engine 6 was brought to the scene by off-duty personnel who laid two lines of 3-inch hose from the hydrant on 1st St. and Denver Ave. to a parking lot on the east side of the area involved and hooked up a 2 1/2-inch and a 1 1/2-inch line for exposure protection. About an hour and a half later, another 2 1/2-inch line was lashed to a forestry utility bucket and used as an aerial stream at this location.
Exposures protected
Ayr Engine 11 laid parallel 2 1/2-inch lines into the alley from a hydrant at 2nd St. and Denver Ave. and used 2 1/2 and 1 1/2-inch lines to protect the exposures and fight the building fire.
Juniata Engine 80 hooked up to a hydrant halfway on 2nd St. between Hastings and Denver Aves., and stretched hand lines for entry into exposed buildings to check for extension of fire. There was no extension of fire.
A third alarm was ordered, bringing mutual aid companies of Roseland, Glenville, and Kenesaw. Roseland responded with an engine company and covered the Hastings station. The Roseland engine responded to a false alarm from an industrial plant detection system and then went to the Fireground because the situation there had become worse and manpower was a critical need. Mutual aid companies from Glenville and Kenesaw stood by at the fire station to be used for relief.
When manpower became available, a search for victims and extension of fire was conducted in buildings throughout the area. It was a miracle that neither victims nor fire was found. All the surrounding buildings had lost most of their windows, as well as other damage, and blast debris had been blown into their inventories.
Power lines drop
While the fire continued to burn, utility company personnel worked frantically to try to shut off the broken gas main. Electrical power lines dropped early in the fire when flames broke through the north wall of the fire building and burned through the wires. The high lines were a danger to the fire fighters trying to take exposure protection lines down through the alley, and the men set up their lines to the right and left of the wires, shooting their water in a criss-cross manner. When the Ayr unit pulled down the alley, the power had already been cut off.
After the power failed, the fire and police station communications centers had to work off emergency generators for several hours.
Gas inspectors were making checks for gas buildups. The gas concentrations in buildings on the east side of 1st St., between Denver and Hastings Aves., were building up to dangerous levels. These buildings remained hot for at least two days while aeration devices were used to pull gas from the ground around them.
All gas services were shut down in the immediate area to avert the possibility of another explosion. Security perimeters were established quickly at the fire. Many stores had merchandise blown onto the sidewalk and street. The streets were covered with broken glass and debris. The subfreezing temperatures caused the water to freeze over this mess, making walking treacherous.
Control attained
The fire was placed under control about 4 a.m., although the fire burned next to the alley until midmorning. The area on 1st St. was allowed to burn so that gas concentrations could be drawn out from the ground. The fire at that location died out about noon.
During the fire operation, the command post was changed from the fire car to a field command bus. Fire fighters could get in out of the frigid weather, as well as policemen, utility workers, and members of the Red Cross, Salvation Army and the Fire Department Women’s Auxiliary, who served coffee and sandwiches. The communications bus became a valuable asset for the next Five days.
Civil Defense Director Terry Marshall and I notified the State Fire Marshal’s Office during the early hours of the fire on Saturday. After dawn, the mutual aid forces were sent back to their home towns. Kenesaw was asked to return for fire watch so that the Hastings units could reload, clean up and be given relief at the fireground Saturday afternoon.
Deputy state fire marshals began arriving from midmorning on. State Fire Marshal Wally Barnett had a staff of 18 men, consisting of structural and electrical engineers, draftsmen and pipeline safety people.
A problem facing the fire forces was the broken windows throughout the area. Before any area could be secured, the glass shards had to be removed so that they wouldn’t fall and injure persons on the street. Fire fighters started at the top floors of the buildings and worked down to the ground level. Canopies were swept off, and after a section was cleared of glass and debris, the debris was shoveled into the street for removal by city equipment.
As a result of the blast, many other gas leaks began to plague the area on 2nd St. Buildings began to load with gas, and an area of several blocks that included a hotel was evacuated. The people affected were cared for and housed through the efforts of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. This area remained sealed for five days.
Because of the additional gas leaks, the area was expanded for more than a day. Meals and a rest area were provided by Red Cross and Salvation Army units during the disaster.
Frigid temperatures
The temperature at the time of the blast was 6 degrees above zero with a southeast wind from 3 to 5 mph. The weather worsened daily during the operations, making conditions for the utility works extremely severe. Wind chill factors were as low as —56 degrees during that week.
Because utilities were shut off in most of the damaged area, the possibility of water systems freezing was the next potential disaster. Through the coordination of utility inspectors, city plumbing inspectors, state fire marshals, police, National Guard, civil defense, and fire officers, a system was developed so business owners could get passes from the police station and report to the state fire marshal’s communications van. At that point, they were escorted into and out of the area by emergency forces so that business records or water services could be secured in the buildings that were freed of gas concentrations.
Sprinkler systems, water pipes and plumbing fixtures were drained to prevent serious breakage from freezing. This saved considerable loss from frozen pipes. However, there were still some losses.
Utility workers exhausted
During the first days of the operations, utility crews worked around the clock trying to restore services. By the end of the third day, at least five utility workers and two of the fire marshal’s staff had become ill from exhaustion. Local and state officials decided to limit work to no later than 8 p.m. daily unless specific incidents had to be carried on later than that.
On Sunday, Feb. 11, local officials declared a state of emergency in the downtown area to open areas for disaster relief. State and federal officials visited Hastings and proceedings were begun to provide disaster relief for those affected.
Two minor injuries were reported during the fire. There were no cases of looting in the downtown area where there were no windows or doors for security for almost a week.
Many mistakes were made in almost all areas, but we have learned from them. Emergency? It is not “if’ but “when.”
