Firefighters Prepared for Worst during Wednesday Gas Leak
Posted
Craig Brosman-
Firefighters from Warsaw and Winona Lake waited in the parking lot of the Warsaw Police Department for three hours, fearing the worst.
Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, emergency crews responded to a natural gas leak on the west side of Owens East on Center Street. The leak was originally believed to be that of a 4-inch steel, high pressure service line that was punctured by a contractor boring in the parking lot.
After a few hours, NIPSCO realized it was not the 4-inch pipe, but a 2-inch plastic service line and shut off gas service to Owens in order to fix the issue. NIPSCO crews worked past 11 p.m. to fix the punctured pipe.
When crews arrived on the scene at East Fort Wayne Street they could see gas leaking from a large bulge in the concrete near the loading dock at Owens. Quickly, firefighters closed off Fort Wayne Street from Harrison to McKinley streets.
Warsaw Fire Chief Matt Brubaker immediately thought of a gas leak on Parker Street in 2009 where the line erupted and burnt a house down.
“This is a wait-and-see situation,” Brubaker said. “We will be here until the situation is fixed and that could take hours.”
Since NIPSCO thought the pipe that was ruptured was a 4-inch steel, high-pressure service line, the only way to fix the issue is to call a welding team to fix the rupture. NIPSCO immediately called a welding team from Gary, but the earliest estimated time of arrival was midnight.
“What they do is they leave the gas on and weld a patch onto the ruptured section of pipe,” Brubaker said. “It is very dangerous and the last time they tried fixing it like this they caught the gas on fire and it burned for nearly five hours.”
In the meantime Brubaker and his men constructed emergency plans in case the line ignited. They ran a hose from the police department west toward Harrison Streets, had multiple crews on the scene and crews on standby at other fire houses. In addition, firefighters from Winona Lake and Warsaw walked through WPD, JB’s Furniture, Owens and DC Haircrafters periodically checking the gas levels.
After about an hour, firefighters noticed the gas was leaking from multiple spots in the parking lot, not just one. One firefighter counted three breaches, and then minutes later counted five and shortly after couldn’t tell because the leaks had become large enough that they were merging together.
A few hours into the crisis, NIPSCO told Brubaker they thought at some point the line changed from steel to plastic and that if they could find the plastic section they could crimp it and slow the flow of gas. Around that time Brubaker was notified that at the bottom of the loading dock was access to the sewer and storm drain. Firefighters quickly tested the area for gas levels and found that it was at 12 percent. They also noticed gas leaking out of the road.
“At that point we removed the manholes to vent out it out,” Brubaker said. "At 12 percent, if the mixture of gas and air is right and there is an ignition source, it could have been bad.”
When Brubaker heard that the gas had entered the sewer and storm drain he decided to extend the road closures in the area. Harrison was closed from Sheridan to Center streets; Fort Wayne Street was closed from Lincoln to Roosevelt streets; and Roosevelt Street was closed from Clark to Main streets.
At 6:50 p.m., NIPSCO found the valve shut-off for the gas line and shut off gas service to Owens. Crews from NIPSCO stayed late into the night, digging up the pipe and fixing it.
NIPSCO Public Affairs Manager Angie Nelson was pleased with the outcome of the situation.
“Thank God for the good weather,” Nelson said. “Luckily, it was nice out and cutting off service to Owens was not an issue.”
Brubaker was glad that the situation ended without incident.
“This was the best possible ending to the incident,” he said.
