A week after a gas line explosion startled southeast Springfield, City Utilities plans a cleanup of the site amid ongoing internal and external investigations into the cause of the explosion.
The gas line explosion near the intersection of Briar Street and Charleston Avenue left about 1,700 CU customers without power on July 17. Three CU employees sustained minor injuries, equipment was destroyed and nearby homes were damaged from the fire and heat.
CU, the Springfield Fire Department, the Springfield Police Department, the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, the Public Works Department and the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management all responded to the incident, closing streets, putting out the fire and restoring power.
In its aftermath, CU, the Missouri Public Service Commission and the Department of Transportation all opened investigations to determine the root cause of the valve malfunction that resulted in the explosion and fire.
“The best thing we hope that they will find out is what contributed to the failure of this piece of equipment that caused the gas to start flowing and blowing,” said Joel Alexander, CU’s communications manager. “It's critical that we understand what did that and what steps need to be taken to assure that that’s not going to happen again.”
Environmental contractor to perform clean up on site
Following the incident, which impacted the State Route M and Twin Oaks substations, Alexander said he anticipated it to be well into the following day before some residents had power restored. However, customers ended up having electricity back by about 7 p.m. on the same day of the explosion, as CU raised transmission and distribution structures, several hundred feet of wire and redirected power to impacted areas.
On the natural gas side of things, a transmission line still needs to be replaced, but everything is back in working order, according to Alexander, who said that City Utilities was fortunate the incident didn’t occur during winter months when customers rely on gas to heat their homes.
An open pit and damaged vehicles and equipment remain on the property, which was flooded in some places when water from the emergency response entered the excavation site and the exposed gas lines.
Before CU can replace the transmission line and other damaged structures in the area — a process that has itself been hampered by supply chain issues — an environmental contractor will be required to clean up the property.
Some nearby homes require repairs from heat damage. Following the cleanup, CU will arrange for landscaping work.
Same precautions, but heightened awareness going forward
As CU continues to carry out routine maintenance on aging gas lines around Springfield, Alexander said safety precautions will remain the same, but there will be a heightened awareness and concern.
“They knew what they were doing, but the investigation will determine exactly what created the situation that we were dealing with there on Monday,” Alexander said.
He stressed the incident was rare, and came as a result of equipment failure. The investigations aim to reveal the cause of the failure.
“We want to get down to the root cause of that, figure out exactly what the contributing factors were, and how to mitigate that so that something like this doesn't happen,” Alexander said.
CU will internally focus on the root cause analysis, and the Missouri Public Service Commission and the U.S. Department of Transportation are being brought in due to the involvement of natural gas and related safety regulations.
“There's some pretty serious investigations that are going to go on to this just because of the magnitude of what natural gas is, how it's handled, how it was delivered,” Alexander said.
Alexander emphasized the need for customers to also be aware of the dangers of natural gas, and encouraged people to call emergency services and CU if they think they smell it.
