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The Jaw-Dropping Pictures of the ‘Major’ West Virginia Gas Line Explosion

Dec. 11, 2012 3:01pm Liz Klimas

A major gas line explosion that occurred just before 1 p.m. Tuesday in Sissonville, W. Va., has 911 officials recommending those in the area stay sheltered, according to WSAZ.

The local station reported that emergency crews are on the scene at Teresa Lane in Kanawha County, which is about 15 miles from Charleston. The gas line has been capped, but crews are reportedly calling it a “major explosion,” according to WSAZ.

Mackenzie Mays, the education reporter from the West Virginia Gazette, posted this picture (below) on Twitter.

Gas Line Explodes in Sessonville, West Virginia, Shuts Down I 77

Mays wrote this photo was taken by Kanawha County Emergency Services. (Photo via Twitter)

The flames could be seen by those nearby. All northbound lanes of I-77 were closed at the I-77/79 split in Charleston, according to WSAZ.

Just after 2 p.m., Commissioner Kent Carper said fire was out, but the thick smell of natural gas remains in the air, according to West Virginia Metro News. WCHS reported four buildings being set one fire from the blast.

There have been no reported injuries yet. The explosion did occur near an elementary school — which will not be evacuated at this time and was said not be impacted by the explosion — and a nursing home.

The Charleston Daily Mail has been keeping a breaking blog post with updates, including photos.

(Photo: @ashleybcraig/Twitter)

(Photo: @WSAZKarie/Twitter)

(Photo: @kalliecart/Twitter)

Here are the recent tweets from the Kanawha County emergency response agency:

A spokesperson with Mountaineer Gas told WSAZ it was not one of their lines that exploded but its crew is on the scene to help.

This is a breaking story. TheBlaze will update this post as more information becomes available.

(H/T: Business Insider)

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Comments (39)

Critters58
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 1:49pm
I also think many are intentionally set in order to slow down our production of our own energy production.

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BlessedONE333
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 5:00am
how many people realize that this ‘gas line rupture’ issue is happening 10 times more than in previous generations?

yes, some of the structure issues are valid, the pipes are getting older, but there have been dozens of these gas lines breaking in the last couple of years. Some are because the land is changing, some are because of bad pipes, but sink holes are also happening at record rates as well.

Hell is so full of pagans/liberals/atheists/idiots that it’s busting at the seams lol

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Flag-Man
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 1:46am
Out law gas lines

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Vote_4_the_Person
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:58pm
It was lucky no one was injured. The blast happened near I-77 and that road usually has high traffic (not big city high traffic, mind you, WV traffic). I saw a picture from our local CBS station where the road was melted away. Ugh, it’s scary. The blast stripped the paint from the road sign. I’m so glad no one got hurt.

And terrorist attacks in WV. ROTFL. Yeah, right. The terrorists would go through a lot of trouble to blow up a gas line in a town of four thousand.

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nomemymine
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 9:03pm
I wonder if 3rd world countries have under ground gas lines?

If they do, I wonder if it is maintained regularly? Judging from the condition of their open roads, I doubt the underground infrastructure is in good condition.

Then, we can see from their gas explosion rate, if our explosions may be caused by old equipment too?

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BlasberryStrat
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 5:25pm
Yesterday story on MSMBC: “Gas prices continue to DROP”. Today: “Major GAS line explosion”.

Now, this can’t be a planned ‘hit’…..or can it? Gas prices ‘shouldn’t’ be expected to increase due to this explosion…or will it? Hmmmm…..very – VERY nice timing.

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jessieH
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 5:16pm
There have been a lot of accidental explosions, lately. How many more till we stop lying to ourselves. There are a lot of neanderthals that want to do us harm and our elected officials are blind, deaf & stupid. Ok, maybe an accident.

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- nomemymine
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 9:06pm
  You wrote, “our elected officials are blind, deaf & stupid.” I feel really sorry for our politicians, they get blamed for everthing.
  
  Report this comment
- LouTheGecko
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 6:39am
  What if instead of doing us harm via terror (which could be an unfortunate result), what is these recent explosions are a deliberate effort to serve the agenda of those who do NOT want the U.S. to be energy self-sufficient (other than solar/wind)? What better reason against natural gas than the argument “It’s just not safe.” Think about it…
  
  Report this comment
thegreatcarnac
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 4:08pm
Hey….my jaw didn’t drop however my eyebrows did raise. Does that count?

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Landon410
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 4:05pm
when is George Bush going to stop making bad things happen? what a jerk

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Pork_Anvil
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:58pm
I thought natural gas was so “clean” and “safe?”

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- LIBSALWAYSLIE
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 4:13pm
  PORK, it is clean and (relatively) safe, no one ever said it was impossible for something to go wrong. All energy sources have risks simpleton.
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 4:26pm
  Tick tock, tick tock…. EtchySketchy
  
  Your 5 pm deadline is approaching….
  
  Almost time to punch out and take the short bus back to the half-way house….. LOL
  
  Report this comment
- Silvertruth
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 4:27pm
  The infrastructure has been decaying for decades now. It apparently is cheaper to clean up after something like this than to replace old and decaying lines. After an incident like this, they don’t need to get the permits and environmental waivers they’d need if they tried to do it pre-emptively.
  
  Since most major cities rip up their roads pretty regularly, the gas companies replace lines at those times when it’s convenient and they are coat-tailing on other approved permits. In more rural areas, they have to let them rot and leak or in this case, spectacularly detonate, to get them repaired and replaced.
  
  There are several ‘whistle blower’ reports from Gas company staff that state these very things and nobody pays any attention at all to them.
  
  We have to change permitting and ease some of the restrictions to get our infrastructure back, but then, I guess none of it would be ‘shovel ready’.
  
  Report this comment
- thecrow2123
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 8:13pm
  @Silvertruth
  
  I work for a natural gas production and transmission company and I am here to tell you, you are dead wrong on what your saying. In fact, we have to physically walk every foot of every mile of gas transmission line each year using gas sniffers. When leaks are found they are usually small and are marked and gps’d for repair. Depending on size of leak and moreover it’s proximity to people we have X amount of time to repair it. The road crossings you refer to have to be 100% visually inspected each 7 years. This means either digging it up and visually inspecting or if possible running a “smart pig” through it that uses ultra sound and other things to “map” every inch of it.
  
  By no means, in no way, shape or form would we wait for such an event before doing anything to repair a leak. To even suggest otherwise is ludicrist. This particular disaster will cost the owning company millions in repairs and mostly reparations. It would have been a fraction of the price to dig it up and check it. In the low thousands. There is no issue with permitting since it is federal law that requires these inspections.
  
  You are repeating anti natural gas bullcrap and really need to check your facts before you spout off about things you seriously know nothing about.
  
  Report this comment
- Silvertruth
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 8:30pm
  It’s not just natural gas and it’s not a symptom of all companies. You’re telling me that there are no flaws at all in our gas infrastructure and the ‘whistle blowers’ are all liars? That could very well be, but these incidents happen many times a year and these ‘whistle blowers’ keep coming out.
  
  I many not know what I’m talking about, I could be repeating untruths, but if it’s all perfect, why do the incidents keep happening? Can’t all be errant back-hoe’s…
  
  Report this comment
- thecrow2123
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 9:02pm
  I’m telling you that everything that can be done to prevent things like this, is being done and even still, crap happens. There are a multitude of possible reasons. Some of the lines in this country are very old and yet, still very viable. Others, old and new alike, have issues. Most old line’s are very low pressure intentionally, and wouldn’t pose much of an issue if they did rupture. High pressure lines, like this one, are not. I live in WV and fortunatly this is not one of my companys lines, I do know who’s it is though, but this was from what I’m hearing a high pressure line from a storage well. When you have high pressure, the rules change and it gets much more attention. That said however, things still can happen that you cannot control.
  
  People actually vandalize lines, well heads and compressors believe it or not. Not saying that is the case here as they are still trying to figure out what happened but some people are nuts and do these things. Others, try to tap into and steal the gas for their home. We have found where hunters or whatever have punctured a line, attached a hose or pipe and made a makeshift heater. It’s nuts.
  
  All companys have by federal law anti corrosion programs that mandate testing and prevention. We have to install annodes every so far and apply a positive charge to the pipeline as one example. This cause’s the annode to endure all the corrosion thus protecting the pipe. I could go on for days at all we have to do.
  
  Report this comment
- applsfan
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 9:11pm
  Silver – All the regulation and bureaucracy in the world can’t stop anything bad form happening ever again. Sometimes stuff just happens.
  
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TheMajority
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:40pm
Hmm, a crisis that should not go to waste. (as “keepUSA” said)

Lets look at this as a reason to move into a rural area, to get away from the collapsing infrastructure due to money problems related to progressive international redistribution of production over the last few decades.

You have your own LP tank in the rural areas for your gas, your own well for fresh water. If you can get off the electrical grid, you just side stepped the dysfunction of collectivism.

A functional society maintains it’s infrastructure, and doesn’t break the bank to do it.

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- naughtycal
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:57pm
  So that’s the Highway To he77 AC/DC wrote about……hmmmmm
  
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hauschild
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:35pm
So, gas IS flammable???

Wow – who’da thunk?!?!?

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- The-Monk
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:51pm
  It’s also inflammable…..
  
  Never figured out exactly why the dictionary people did that.
  
  My guess is they considered people stupid; so any word with “flame” in it meant fire.
  
  Report this comment
Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:34pm
Glad no one was hurt, based on the article.

Now who is to blame for this – accident (most probable)? Or one of Obama’s allies?

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neverending
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:28pm
Where’s holder and his minions?

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- TheMajority
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:41pm
  Buying stocks from business who will benifit from their next leglislation.
  
  Report this comment
karenm
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:23pm
Sissonville is the place where the new MTV show “Buckwild” was filmed. I live in WV and we don’t care for the EPA because they like to shut down our coal plants. Maybe the liberals can snuggle up to one another when we don’t have heat in the winter. Daryl Hannah was here protesting not too long ago. Too bad she didn’t stay with John Kennedy.

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- TheMajority
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:46pm
  Do you remember the day when they were acors and actresses—and not activists? Ahhh–that was entertainment.
  
  Anyway, I don’t like the EPA from Michigan either, as they are shutting down our coal plants (that you fine folks produce for us), and destroying private property rights nation wide.
  
  Report this comment
HotFixIt
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:20pm
We had a similar explosion here in West Texas a few days ago.. a weak part of the line… especially if it is an old line will break and cause a big initial explosion. The feed to the line is turned off and the fire goes out.. the line repaired and all goes back to normal. Hopefully no one was injured.. no one here was and only one building burned. Ours happened during a pressure test.

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Salamander
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:18pm
Instead of using all those tax dollars to feed shovel-ready jobs repaving roads that didn’t really need it, maybe they should have passed another ‘tax-loophole’ (used to be called a depreciation allowance, back in the days of rational economics)so that gas-pipeline operators can pig their lines more often to prevent just this sort of failure!

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SaturdaysWarrior76
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:18pm
Exploded near an elementary school and a nursing home? Anybody looking at a possible terrorist tie? Oh wait… this administration would be supporting THAT. Nevermind…

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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:16pm
I guess now the price of natural gas will go up.

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KEEPUSA
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:10pm
You know that a crisis never goes to waste – hear we go….

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ArmedAndReallyPissed
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:08pm
No cause for alarm folks. It’s only the MoBroHo trying out their new F-16′s that the CLOTUS gave them. The Nukes will come later. Nothing to see here. Move along please.

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- KangarooJack
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:37pm
  Agreed-just go back to sleep. Lullabye and goodnight….hmmmm hmmmm da da….
  
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dosdelgados
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:05pm
Time to ban gas. Volts for everyone.

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TheMajority
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:05pm
I just don’t see a wind mill farm producing that much energy.

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- CWPrequired
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:13pm
  Lol!
  
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- stopprintn
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:28pm
  I second that LOL
  
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