Natural Gas Explosion

trucky39 · Outlaw Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 138 City: Paragould

There was a Natural Gas Explosion at a Natural Gas pump station outside of Nashville tonight. They say there were several people killed but they still don't know exactly how many. Flames were supposedly shooting 400-500 feet in the air. Im a firefighter and I have seen some big fires but that is some hellacious flames. They believe that the explosion was caused by damage done by the thunderstorms that went through. If anyone was close to it and maybe got some pics, please post them. That is one fire that I would like to see.

Commodore · Ladies Man Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 11636

You could see the sky light up from my house. If my POS laptop would let me load the video I took last night you can see the red sky.

We had the major storm pass over my house, it was just eeerie quiet. I was just waiting for a funnel cloud to drop. Luckily it didn't, but 20 minutes later it did in Kentucky. Shocked

ontrider · Ladies Man Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 16491 City: Russia

haugy, I thought maybe you had rigged a custom gas tank in your garage for a Tim Taylor style barbeque or something.

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

Aside from the people that were hurt, those explosions are just A W E S O M E!! I'll try and find some pics from a huge explosion outside of Amarillo recently.

trucky39 · Outlaw Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 138 City: Paragould

We had a fire and I got home around 1130 or midnight and was watching the news out of Memphis because they were still cutting people out of buildings from the storm that hit them at 530. Anyways, the reporters said they heard about the explosion and said there was an undetermined amount of people killed and that the flames were shooting 400-500 feet in the air and I was like holy hell. They said it was believed that the storm damaged some pipelines and that was what caused the explosion. Im sure you could see a glow from a long ways off with a fire like that.

mcfatty · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 725 City: Cookeville

First one taken from Castalian Springs, intersection of Pinnacle way and Rock Springs Rd.

Second one taken from 109 N Wilson county

ohsix · Posted: Feb 06, 2008 3:28 pm Post subject:

The coolest explosions I've seen are when lightning hits a tank battery. The explosions are pretty awesome and usually send the top of the tank over 100' in the air. The fire that follows is not that impressive, but the destruction can be amazing.

churchy · Posted: Feb 06, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject:

Why don't they use lightning rods on those tanks?

ohsix · Posted: Feb 06, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject:

churchy, we use lightning arrestors which work well if lightning hits the electrical system or even flow lines, but there's not much we can do if a tank takes a direct hit. The tanks have a back pressure vent on top to vent gas, so they're constantly venting natural gas and the inside has about a 5 psi gas cap.

The field pictured contains 33 wells, each with their own battery. We have 2 or 3 batteries with direct lightning hits every year in that field. That particular battery gets hit every 2 or 3 years. For some reason the lightning likes that one.

My dad operates a field near Ballinger, TX where he had one battery hit 4 times in one year.

trucky39 · Outlaw Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 138 City: Paragould

Mcfatty, I guess thats the one from outside of Nashville?

trucky39 · Outlaw Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 138 City: Paragould

hose are prety cool pics.
Wes, Lightning does some weird stuff. It will miss things that you're almost sure it will hit then hit something next to it that you wouldn't ever think it would hit. Shocked

churchy · Posted: Feb 07, 2008 9:44 am Post subject:

wes reeves, How do they get hit with lighting rods near by.. Seems like this would be an unlikely event if set up correctly.

ohsix · Posted: Feb 07, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject:

churchy, there are no lightning rods, just arrestors, which keep energy from the lightning from continuing past an arrestor. The tanks themselves are like lightning rods since they are grounded, and if not for the flammability of natural gas and other contents of the tank, they would not be affected by lightning. The fiberglass water tanks even have a wire mesh inside the fiberglass which is connected to a ground wire on top (to be hooked to vent line) and another ground wire on bottom. If there's only water in the tank, the energy from the lightning wil be transferred through the tank and into the ground. With a cloud of natural gas above the battery, and in the tanks, I don't know if it's possible to keep it from igniting when taking a direct hit from lightning. If you get 10' from the vent line, the gas is diluted enough that it probably won't ignite with even a very light breeze present. Also, if you get the vent away from the top of the tank a little ways, lightning probably won't explode a tank. In the pictures above, we've done this on the oil tanks (not visible), as they have been hit by lightning before, and it has worked so far. However, in the battery pictured, the water tank (the one burning) had a separate vent line from the oil tanks which was not routed away from the top of the tank.

I've never seen a battery with lightning rods, and have never looked into equipping one myself. Usually, on a tank battery, lightning only destroys what it directly hits. Sometimes it's an electric motor, sometimes a disconnect, and occasionally a tank. I'm not sure what a lightning rod setup costs, but it's probably cost prohibitive to equip every battery with one when you consider the chances of being hit by lightning and the associated costs of repairing lightning damage. The burning battery pictured probably cost about $15,000 and 24 hours of down time to repair. At $90/barrel (with that well making ~90 bopd) it took a little less than 2 days to pay out that damage.

churchy · Posted: Feb 08, 2008 9:19 am Post subject:

That is all fine and well, but I still don't see why you wouldn't just use lightning rods instead of taking your chances... Also, from a cost standpoint, I wouldn't think a tall metal grounded pole could cost that much. Also, with the risk to human life, I am suprised it isn't manditory.