On Sep 10, 6:58*am, "Pete C." wrote:
David Nebenzahl wrote:

Been watching the teevee nooz coverage of the San Bruno [San Francisco
peninsula] gas main explosion and conflagration. Wow.

I used to live about a mile away from that spot, across Skyline Blvd.;
used to shop at the Lunardi's just across the road.

The news reported lots of people saying they'd been smelling gas in the
neighborhood for the last week or so. One can only hope that PG&E (Pure
Greed & Extortion) gets raked over the coals, literally, for this one.

A few comments on this:

- People said they had smelled gas for a week, did any of those people
bother to report it?

- People laugh at me when I say Nat. Gas is *not* safe and should not be
allowed in residential areas, yet nearly every day there is a house
explosion due to a nat. gas leak, and every year or two a big incident
like this one. I recall an apartment building in the northeast (NJ?)
being leveled by one of these nat. gas transmission lines exploding
under it.

- Gas detectors are pretty inexpensive, they're included in every RV.
Various technologies exist to allow the gas monopolies to install gas
monitors in the areas where they pipe their dangerous product. It would
not be especially expensive to install remote gas detectors in the area
that would not rely on some person actually calling the monopoly to
report a possible gas leak. The gas detectors also are more sensitive
than human noses so they could detect a small leak blowing past.

yet nearly every day there is a house
explosion due to a nat. gas leak, and every year or two a big incident
like this one. I recall an apartment building in the northeast (NJ?)
being leveled by one of these nat. gas transmission lines exploding
under it.



Natural gas safety came up another time in AHR.
Per some of our knowledgeable contributors, Nat Gas doesn't cause a
huge number of injuries or property damage.

I googled Nat Gas explosions and fires then and again today.

Natural gas has a pretty decent safety record. A fair number of the
large explosion / fires are caused human error (damaging pipeline with
backhoe).

The NJ incident happened in 1994, one fatality (heart attack)

The was another deadly explosion in NM in 2000, 6 killed instantly,
6 died of burns & smoke


check this out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pipeline_accidents

Yes, of course, these are pipeline accidents but most large scale
explosions appear to correlate with pipeline problems rather than mere
low pressure leaks.

I did a quick scan....... looks like LPG (propane) causes a lot more
problems than Nat Gas and confirms my gut feeling, propane is way more
dangerous than Nat Gas


High pressure nat gas pipelines are the only affordable way to
transport large amounts.

cheers
Bob