Natural Gas Pipe Breaks in Pasco

By Molly Kelleher

Story
Video

Summary

A natural gas leak forced people to evacuate in Pasco. The break is fixed now, but there's still some question about how this happened in the first place and whether your home could be at risk of the same thing.

Story Published: Jul 20, 2010 at 7:03 PM PST

PASCO -- A natural gas leak forced people to evacuate in Pasco. The break is fixed now, but KEPR discovered a bigger concern.

There are still some questions about how this happened in the first place, and whether your home could be at risk of the same thing.

There was a hissing sound as natural gas seeped out of a broken pipe into the Pasco neighborhood.

The hissing was faint but the stench was strong. Police quickly moved in to evacuate people around Pearl and 7th.

It was a neighbor who called 911 after smelling the gas. The people inside were sleeping.

"The door knocking was like someone was dying. And there was a guy yelling telling me there was a gas leak," said Christopher Martinez who lives inside the home.

While firefighters moved in to minimize the leak, Cascade Natural Gas crews shut off the line.

No one was hurt. But it's no exaggeration to say a spark could have sent the gas into a ball of flames.

"Our concern was with gas close to a structure. Gas can build up and be very dangerous, possibly explosive," said Capt. Pat Henrickson of the Pasco Fire Department.

Crews don't know how this line broke.

"Not sure how it happened, kids could have been playing on it, someone made a u-turn, but no one seems to know," said Henrickson.

"I wasn't doing any construction back there. I was asleep," said Martinez.

KEPR asked, "This isn't something that just happened?" Steven Kessie, General Manager of Operations for Cascade responded, "No, this is not at all an act of nature. This is a severed pipe and that is very rare. It took significant force.".

Cascade Natural Gas insists the pipes didn't just break themselves, but because no one knows what happened, the gas company will pay for the fix.

And there's a larger message out of all of this, those pipes shooting from the back of your house are serious business. Don't hide them, and don't mess with them.