Posted: 9/1/04
By Barbara Brown
Approaching a fire from a natural gas pipe line is like walking really close to a runaway train.
The noise is similar, the rush of air being pushed out of the way by hot flame is intense and the fear of falling into the fire is nearly heart-stopping.
Armed with extinguishers loaded with a special chemical called Purple K makes one feel a lot safer.
The product, a powdery lilac tinted substance lighter than talc, can snuff all the oxygen from a gas line fire faster than you can blink.
Firefighters from all over East Central Minnesota gathered at the Northern Natural Gas compression station on the border of Harris and North Branch last week for training.
Northern Natural Gas operations manager for the North Branch Plant Gregg Lindblom said the training was not only a community service from Northern Natural Gas and Aquila, but it served to train both Aquila and plant employees and remind everyone of the delicate and sometimes volatile nature of natural gas.
ìWeíre trying to show them that an every day event like a developer digging a foundation when they have not had the area checked for gas lines can spark a major event and how to deal with it,î Lindblom said.
Northern Natural Gas hosted a similar training session at the North Branch plant about three years ago.
After catching up what each department has been up to, the firefighters gathered around Aquila corporate trainer Dick Devine who lead them through the program.
Meant to teach firefighters how to handle different situations in which gas lines have ruptured and caught fire, the training was provided through a partnership with Northern Natural Gas and Aquila.
The firefighters experienced four simulated scenarios which could occur should a pipe line rupture.
In the first case, firefighters encountered what Aquila safety manager Art Barr called the companyís most common rupture.
The scene was set with a hole dug about 20 inches into the ground ñ about the typical depth of a line a building contractor might encounter.
A line of gas pipe, supplied from a truck stationed nearby, was run along the ground through a regulator to control the pressure.
The gas was released into the hole and lit.
Pressure was increased on the gas in the line to simulate the sound and force firefighters would face in a real-life situation ñ up to nearly 90 pounds of pressure with flames shooting more than six feet in the air.
On their turns, each of the firefighters in full turnout picked up the extinguishers filled with Purple K ñ some weighing more than 60 pounds ñ approached the fireball cautiously and doused it with the powdery substance.
In some cases it seemed to take only a split second to put out the flames and in other cases, the man controlling the regulator cranked up the pressure again to teach the firefighters never to turn their backs on a gas fire.
Another exercise taught firefighters how natural gas reacts when it is released onto a flat vertical surface like the side of a building or hood of a car.
A third experiment taught the firefighters that water cannot douse a natural gas fire.
They learned a technique dubbed the ìcone of containmentî in which a wide, gentle spray from fire hoses can create a cone which traps and pushes back the flames from the natural gas fire and keeps them under control until a trained technician from the gas company can get to the scene and turn off the gas.
ìWeíre presenting them with worst case scenarios here,î Devine said. ìWeíve been doing this for 20 years,î Devine said of Aquilaís program. ìThese are not things that someone sat down at a desk and thought up. They were collected from real life events.î
Training season for Aquila is May through October. Trainers from the Omaha, Neb.-based company travel to several states during that time to teach firefighters the techniques of fighting a natural gas fire.
ìOne reason we do this is because it [a gas line fire] doesnít happen on a regular basis. This is meant to show them what it will be like and take off that edge.î
Attending the training were firefighters from North Branch, Rush City, Harris, Mora, Hinckley, Pine City and Finlayson.
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