Pictures below are a result of a farmer using a post hole digger without
calling for "locates" and he hit an underground, high-pressure cross country
gas pipe.
They never did find the guy.... Took out 2 homes.
A post hole digger? Come on, bro.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/gasmain.asp
The photographs displayed above do document the aftermath of a gas pipeline rupture, but the mishap was not caused by a backhoe operator who started digging without following proper safety procedures and struck a high pressure gas main.
The pipeline rupture and subsequent explosion occurred on the morning of 14 September 2008 near Appomattox, Virginia, as described by the Lynchburg (Virginia) News & Advance:
That pipeline failed just before 8 a.m. on Sept. 14. The natural gas it released blew into a fireball that scorched an area 1,125 feet in diameter, leveled two homes and injured five people, according to preliminary findings in the federal investigation. Some 100 homes were damaged in the blast,
The pipeline failure was not caused by a backhoe (or any other equipment or object) piercing the line and rupturing it, but as a result of corrosion that had not been detected during the gas company's periodic safety inspections:
Outside corrosion caused the rupture and subsequent explosion of a natural gas pipeline just north of the town of Appomattox.
The
analysis of Williams Gas Company's pipeline showed that the thinning wasn't fully captured by the tools used to examine the pipes in service, said John Batchelder, a pipeline integrity expert with the company.
"In the life of this pipeline, the coating became compromised," he said. "The rocks in this ditch make it very difficult to protect this area."
Rum Dick you rube
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