Update: 'Life-risk situation' averted after Providence gas leak
3:58 PM Fri, Apr 10, 2009 | Permalink
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By Kate Bramson and Maria Armental PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- National Grid crews are testing a natural gas pipe in downtown Providence that was cracked Friday morning by a construction crew working in Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island's new headquarters on Finance Way, said a spokesman for the utility. If no further leaks are found, spokesman David Graves said, workers will repressure the gas lines and restore service. Gas service was cut off to eight natural gas meters in four buildings between 10 and 10:15 a.m., Graves said, after workers accidentally ruptured a 1¼-inch service line. Five buildings were temporarily evacuated Friday morning as a precaution. The buildings evacuated were the Blue Cross building, the Waterplace Luxury Residences at 100 and 200 Exchange St., a parking garage at 400 Exchange St., and the former American Express Building at 100 Finance Way, fire officials said. Though the American Express building has been vacant, a prospective buyer was touring the property Friday morning, Providence Fire Battalion Chief Timothy McDaniel said. More than 90 minutes after emergency crews were called to the scene, the gas was shut off and any danger that the leak could spark a fire was eliminated, according to the fire department. "We're down to a safe level again," McDaniel said at the scene. Graves said he could not characterize the danger level of the situation Friday morning because he does not know the levels of gas in the area. However, he said on a day like Friday -- when a breeze is blowing, it's not humid and the gas is dissipating into the air -- there is a limited danger. Also, because the leak was outside -- and not in an enclosed area where the gas could build up -- he said the safest approach was for the National Grid crew to follow the same protocol they follow when they respond to every report of a smell of gas. "They find the safest and the best way to shut the gas off in the system," he said. That new headquarters for the health insurer is behind the Providence Train Station and the former American Express building. McDaniel said it has no official address yet, as it is still under construction. The side of it that faces the train station is a convex configuration of multiple rectangular glass panes that glimmered in the Friday morning sunlight. Just after 10 a.m., McDaniel said the gas was still leaking -- after crews were called to the scene around 8:30 a.m. -- and had not been shut off or capped because the backhoe that struck the gas line had its bucket resting on the ruptured gas line and couldn't move it for fear that it would cause a "worse situation." At that time, National Grid was trying to find a shut-off valve for the gas, McDaniel said. Graves said later on Friday that National Grid located the two shut-off valves for the gas "almost immediately after arriving." "When we first got here, it was potentially a life-risk situation," McDaniel said when asked about the danger level downtown. By 10 a.m., the area had been quarantined, and fire crews were ready to contain any fire that might have sparked, he said. Just minutes after McDaniel finished addressing reporters at the scene, he came back and reported that the gas had then been shut off and crews were preparing to allow people back in the evacuated buildings. The Blue Cross building sits in the Capital Center area of Providence, near the GTECH headquarters at the intersection of Memorial Boulevard and Francis Street, the Providence Place mall, the Rhode Island State House and the train station. Crews were actively taking readings of the natural gas levels in the area and were poised to evacuate more buildings if necessary, including GTECH, the mall, the State House and the train station. However, just after 10 a.m., those buildings weren't in immediate danger, McDaniel said, because of the direction the wind was blowing. About 100 people had been evacuated from the Blue Cross building, according to the fire department and crews who were evacuated. The other buildings that were evacuated were 100 Exchange St. and 200 Exchange St., which McDaniel said are the new Waterplace Luxury Residences; 400 Exchange Terrace, which he said was a garage; and 100 Finance Way, which is the former American Express building. Although the American Express building has been empty recently, it needed to be evacuated, McDaniel said, because a prospective buyer was touring it Friday morning. Since perhaps 8 a.m., and until at least 10:15 a.m., the smell of gas was strong on Finance Way, where about a dozen emergency vehicles responded to the natural gas leak. The smell was also noticeable, but not as strong, at the bottom of Francis Street, about half a city block away, at the GTECH headquarters at 10 Memorial Boulevard, and further up Francis Street in the opposite direction, at the base of the hill where the State House sits. It could also be detected up Gaspee Street, outside the Providence Train Station. Throughout the incident, trains continued to operate. A few members of the United Association Sprinkler Fitters Local Union 676 who had been evacuated sat outside the Providence Place mall at the corner of Finance Way and Francis Street Friday morning. The sprinkler fitters' foreman, Paul Marshall, said at least 100 carpenters, plumbers, sprinkler fitters and other construction workers were evacuated at about 8:25 a.m. Marshall said the sprinkler fitters were not the ones who ruptured the natural gas line. Shortly before 9:30 a.m., a train was rumbling underground where the sprinkler fitters sat. A laborer who was also among the evacuees, Nathaniel Robinson of Voluntown, Conn., said his company, H Carr & Son of Providence, decided around 10 a.m. to send its workers home, so they would not be in danger. Robinson said the crew he was working with began to smell gas around 8 a.m. but didn't evacuate until horns blew in the building to get them all out, around 8:30 a.m. "We all ran down the stairs," he said, dropping their personal effects and leaving behind expensive equipment. Some even left their house and car keys in the building, he said, as they didn't have those items with them at the time they were evacuated. -- with reports from Journal Staff Writer Tom Mooney The Providence Journal has been following this today story as it develops. Our initial report was posted at 8:50 a.m., and updated at 10:06 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 10:55 a.m., 11:53 a.m. and 2:16 p.m. An earlier version of this story included an incorrect statement from National Grid as to the time that the gas service in the affected area was shut off. 
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Another one that never heard of Dig Safe.
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I came from the midwest were Gas is the primary energy source. we do not have houses blowing up or all the issues with gas leaks. The gas company maintains the service lines and understands the system. Unlike our friends here in RI who do not maintain the lines or know how to service the equipment. I am a gas user here in RI, I also am a retiered heating contractor. We have an issue that needs to be addressed. It seems that we do not regulate the utlity correctly. What does the electric company know about gas?
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DigSafe was on location before, during and after this incident. Witnessed it first hand. Unfortunately, the operator was at fault but we are VERY fortunate that the action of the Gas, Police and Fire were able to control the situation and ultimately, save hundreds of lives.
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