MarkWest isolates Ethane, Propane and Butanes from “Wet” Natural Gas

From an Article by Pittsburgh Post Gazette, December 14, 2018

Four people remain hospitalized, one in critical condition, after an explosion at a Washington County gas processing plant Thursday night.

The explosion involved two storage tanks at the MarkWest Energy facility at 800 Western Ave., in Houston, Pa. It was reported at 6:03 p.m. and the fire brought under control within an hour, according to county emergency officials.

All of the injured workers suffered burns. Two were flown to UPMC Mercy, including one person who was in critical condition Friday morning, officials said. The other two injured were flown to West Penn Hospital.

Nine fire departments and three EMS crews responded, as did the county’s hazmat unit. No homes were evacuated.

A MarkWest official said in a statement that the explosion occurred “near two temporary tanks that were on-site for routine maintenance, resulting in a fire.”

“Although the processing plant was not involved in the incident, it was shut down as a precaution and at this time there are no off-site impacts,” the statement read. “Agency notifications have been made and an investigation into the cause of this event is underway. Our prayers are with our injured colleagues and their families.”

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From WTAE Action 4 News:

The Marathon Petroleum Corporation issued the following statement:

“At approximately 6 p.m. local time, the MarkWest processing plant in Houston, Pennsylvania, experienced an incident near two temporary tanks that were on-site for routine maintenance, resulting in a fire. There were injuries and four individuals have been transported to area hospitals. Local fire departments responded and the fire has been extinguished. The processing plant has been shut down as a precaution and at this time there were no off-site impacts. Agency notifications have been made and an investigation into the cause of this event is underway. Our prayers are with our injured colleagues and their families.”

A spokesperson for the PA Department of Environmental Protection told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 a team did respond to the site. Crews investigated and determined chemicals from the foam used by firefighters to put out the fire did not leak into any nearby water supply.

The PA-DEP said the company has until January 15 to submit a report detailing the incident.

Explosions & Fire: See Video

Marshall County Community Wonders About Safety After Plant Fire

From the Article by Jake Kauffman, WTRF – TV, Channel 7 News, September 22, 2013

See also the NEWS 7 video of this fire, at the Blue Racer Fractionation Plant which is jointly owned by Dominion Resources and Caiman Energy.

It was definitely not something you want to hear in the middle of the night, a natural gas plant next to your house is on fire and could potentially blow up. But quick thinking by some neighbors and authorities helped keep everyone safe in one small Marshall County community.

Just before 1:30 AM on Saturday morning, a Marshall County Sheriff’s deputy notice one stack at the still-under-construction Dominion plant off of Route 2 was on fire. 

The small community of Kent is right down Route 2 from the Dominion plant and we’re rocked by the sounds of explosions once the stack caught fire. ”We just started hearing explosions, then I heard something that sounded like a crash and then another big explosion. We decided at about that time that we better get out,” said Arwana Wade, a Kent resident. 

Once the Wade’s decided it was time to head to safety, Arwana’s husband Delbert started making sure his neighbors were safe. ”I got excited and starting waking the neighbors up, we got a widow woman living next door to me with a blind daughter and there’s a couple of older people around the neighborhood and they all kind of look to me,” said Delbert Wade.

The fire was finally put out around 8:30 AM Saturday morning and Route 2 was reopened around 9:30 AM. Although there were no injuries this time, the neighbors are still worried about what might happen once Dominion finishes construction on the plant.

“We don’t feel safe, we don’t know if it’s going to get any worse,” said Delbert Wade. “I mentioned it to them before and they said ‘We have it under control. It’s just releasing pressure on the smoke stack.’ But they didn’t tell us it was going to blow up and shoot fire everywhere.”

The 7 News staff did speak with Dan Donivan of Dominion and they are currently working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to find out what sparked the fire Saturday morning.

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In 1937 Nearly 300 Texas Students were Killed by a Wet Gas Explosion

Nearly 300 students in Texas are killed by a 1937 explosion of natural gas at their school.

The Consolidated School of New London, Texas, sat in the middle of a large oil and natural gas field. The area was dominated by 10,000 oil derricks, 11 of which stood right on school grounds. The school was newly built in the 1930s for close to $1 million and, from its inception, bought natural gas from Union Gas to supply its energy needs. The school’s natural gas bill averaged about $300 a month.

Eventually, officials at Consolidated School were persuaded to save money by tapping into the wet-gas lines operated by Parade Oil Company that ran near the school. Wet gas is a type of waste gas that is less stable and has more impurities than typical natural gas. At the time, it was not completely uncommon for consumers living near oil fields to use this gas.

At 3:05 p.m. on March 18, a Thursday afternoon, the 694 students and 40 teachers in attendance at the Consolidated School were looking forward to the final bell, which was to ring in 10 minutes. Instead, a huge and powerful explosion, which literally blew the roof off of the building, leveled the school. The blast was felt by people 40 miles away and killed most victims instantly. People rushed to the scene to pull out survivors; hundreds of injured students were hauled from the rubble.

Miraculously, some students walked away unharmed; 10 of these were found under a large bookcase that shielded them from the falling building. First-aid stations were established in the nearby towns of Tyler, Overton, Kilgore and Henderson to tend to the wounded. Reportedly, a blackboard at the destroyed school was found that read, Oil and natural gas are East Texas’ greatest natural gifts. Without them, this school would not be here and none of us would be learning our lessons.

The exact cause of the spark that ignited the gas was never found, although it is now known that the gas could have been ignited by static electricity. As a result of this incident, wet gas was required to be burned at the site rather than piped away.