DIYbanter - View Single Post - Massive Natural Gas Explosion "Flips" a House

dpb

wrote:
....

Hard to imagine how enough gas could accumulate to cause this. The
pressure is so low that you can't imagine anything "bursting". I
would think that the most likely appliance to provide a huge gas flow
would be a range with a couple of unlit burners on, but there is no
information which indicates that the homeowner had one.

Large leak/short time -- small leak/long time can yield same total gas
accumulation. Elderly lady, poor sense of smell and/or not often in the
basement isn't at all difficult for me to believe...

They said she had an electric range, only water heater, furnace and
dryer, all in the basement. I noticed from the map they showed on one
article that there are railroad tracks nearby. I wonder if the
vibration from the trains could have caused a pipe to weaken and
eventually break. Otherwise, I'd place my bet on the dryer. Dryers
vibrate which can weaken the pipes, whereas a furnace or water heater
are pretty much stable.
....

I'd place odds far higher on simply long-term corrosion in either the
distribution line(s) or at a connection. Mechanical causation of the
type you describe would be way down on the list in my guesstimation.
Gas carries with it water and other impurities which are
corrosion-inducing and iirc, this was a house w/ some age on it...
Only hypothesis, of course, and only the forensics will tell, but that
would be my highest-likelihood guess.

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