Pipeline accident report. Consolidated Gas Supply Corporation, propane pipeline rupture and fire, Ruff Creek, Pennsylvania, July 20, 1977
At 4:30 a.m., e.d.t., on July 20, 1977, a 12-inch propane pipeline, owned by the Consolidated Gas Supply Corporation, ruptured near the town of Ruff Creek, Pennsylvania. The liquid, under 450-psig pressure, escaped from the pipeline, vaporized, and propane gas fumes settled like a fog over the bottom of a valley. About 6 a.m., two men in a pickup truck entered the propane cloud; the truck stalled and the propane gas ignited when an attempt was made to restart the truck. A flash fire, approximately 10 yards wide, followed a streambed located along the bottom of the valley and burned everything in its path for a distance of 1 mile. As a result of this accident, the 2 persons in the truck were killed, the truck was destroyed, 57 head of cattle were killed, overhead power and telephone lines were destroyed, a hay storage shed containing 450 bales of hay was burned, 1,800 barrels of propane burned, and a meadow and wooded area 1 mile long by 100 yards wide was burned. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the failure by stress-corrosion cracking of a 12-inch propane pipeline which had been subjected to earth subsidence caused by previous coal mining operations underneath the pipeline. The fatalities and property damage resulted from the escaping liquid which vaporized and settled in a valley where it was later ignited by an electrical spark from a truck.
- Research Organization:
- National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, DC (USA). Bureau of Accident Investigation
- OSTI ID:
- 6620583
- Report Number(s):
- PB-278192; NTSB-PAR-78-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GASES
TRANSPORT
PIPELINES
RUPTURES
PROPANE
ACCIDENTS
COAL MINING
FIRES
PENNSYLVANIA
STRESS CORROSION
ALKANES
CENTRAL REGION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CORROSION
FAILURES
HYDROCARBONS
MINING
NATURAL GAS LIQUIDS
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
USA
030500* - Natural Gas- Health & Safety