2-ALARM FIRE DESTROYS FARM SHED, TRACTORS IN LANCASTER COUNTY. A BLOCK HEATER USED TO KEEP AN ENGINE WARM SO A PIECE OF MACHINERY WILL START AFTER A COLD NIGHT SPARKED THE FIRE

2-ALARM FIRE DESTROYS FARM SHED, TRACTORS IN LANCASTER COUNTY.  A BLOCK HEATER USED TO KEEP AN ENGINE WARM SO A PIECE OF MACHINERY WILL START AFTER A COLD NIGHT SPARKED THE FIRE

Saturday, January 31, 2015

A two-alarm fire caused $150,000 damage to a large building and several tractors on a farm in Rapho Township.

A neighbor spotted the blaze at 2147 Wisgarver Road shortly after 7:30 p.m. Friday, Mastersonville Fire Company Deputy Chief Jeff Siegrist said.

Flames quickly went through the roof of the 60-by-100-foot storage and maintenance shed.

“We couldn’t really save anything there, so we kept it from spreading,” Siegrist said. Forty or more firefighters prevented the fire from significantly damaging a corn crib next to the shed.

A dozen or more fire companies sent units to fight the fire. Thirteen tankers hauled water from a fill site at Sauder Bros. Concrete, 1464 Mastersonville Road.

The building is back a long, narrow unpaved lane, making access difficult. Snow was drifting across roads and the lane, so some apparatus went through a field.

“Extreme cold caused problems,” Siegrist said. “Equipment froze up, apparatus got stuck in the snow. Wind made it cold on the guys, so we had to rotate crews through.”

Firefighters brought the blaze under control at 9:13 p.m. and stayed at the scene until 1 a.m. Saturday. No people or animals were injured.

The shed and nearly all of its contents, including at least seven tractors and other equipment, were destroyed, Siegrist said. Most of the tractors were old and may not have been working.

Damage was estimated at $100,000 to the building, $50,000 to contents.

A state police fire marshal ruled the fire accidental. It is thought a block heater used to keep an engine warm so a piece of machinery will start after a cold night sparked the fire, Siegrist said.

The property is owned by Roy High and others, according to county property records.

The same property was hit by a small fire when an oil furnace malfunctioned in December 2013, according to newspaper records. Damage from that fire was minimal.

NTSB: SYSTEMIC FLAWS IN SAFETY OVERSIGHT OF GAS PIPELINES. WITH MORE PIPELINES, LNG TERMINALS AND OTHER ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE COMING CLOSER TO HEAVILY POPULATED AREAS, WE HAVE ALSO BEEN SOUNDING THE ALARM FOR SOME TIME NOW.

 

NTSB: SYSTEMIC FLAWS IN SAFETY OVERSIGHT OF GAS PIPELINES. 

WITH MORE PIPELINES, LNG TERMINALS AND OTHER ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE COMING CLOSER TO HEAVILY POPULATED AREAS, WE HAVE ALSO BEEN SOUNDING THE ALARM FOR SOME TIME NOW.

WASHINGTON, DC — Several powerful accidents in recent years and in this young year highlight weaknesses in the oversight of how natural gas providers maintain the largest pipelines in their networks, accident investigators said Tuesday as they issued more than two dozen safety recommendations.

A major effort a decade ago by the federal government to check a rise in violent pipeline failures in "high-consequence" areas where people are more likely to be hurt or buildings destroyed has resulted in a slight leveling off of such incidents, but no decline, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

And while the frequency of such accidents remains low, they are still more likely to occur in more densely populated areas despite increased safety efforts in those areas, the report found.

More safety improvements are needed "to prevent catastrophic gas transmission line accidents from ever happening again," said Chris Hart, the acting NTSB chairman.

A steady increase in pipeline explosions and fires in the 10 years prior to 2003 prompted the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to adopt safety standards in 2004 for inspecting and maintaining the physical integrity of pipelines, with priority given to high consequence areas.

Since then, state-regulated pipelines — those that don't cross state borders — have had a 27 percent higher incident rate than federally regulated pipelines that traverse more than one state, the report said.

From 2010 to 2013, incidents were overrepresented in high-consequence-area pipelines compared to less-developed areas where the risk to people and property is less, the board said.

Three accidents since 2010 illustrate many of the systemic problems, the board said. On September 9, 2010, a massive section of pipeline was blown out of the ground, igniting a giant pillar of fire in San Bruno, a San Francisco suburb. Nine people were killed and 70 homes destroyed. The blast was so powerful that residents initially thought there had been an earthquake or jet crash. Because there were no automatic or remotely controlled valves, more than an hour passed before the gas could be shut off.

On Dec. 11, 2012, near Sissonville, W.Va., a stretch of pipeline ruptured, igniting a fire that destroyed three homes, damaged several others and melted the asphalt off a nearby stretch of highway. The pipeline hadn't been inspected in 24 years.

A similar pipeline ruptured on May 4, 2009, near Palm City, Florida. The blast tossed 106 feet of buried pipeline into the air. It landed in the right-of-way between two major highways — Interstate 95 and the Florida Turnpike. Incredibly, no fire was ignited even though 36 million cubic feet of gas escaped and two other large gas lines were buried parallel to the one that ruptured. One policeman was injured. Damage to the pipe's protective coating had gone undiscovered, and a shut-off valve had failed to close.

In each of the accidents in the three states, the gas companies failed to conduct inspections or tests that might have revealed weaknesses in the massive pipelines, the NTSB found in a report that also reflected federal safety data and interviews with state inspectors and industry officials.

The concern then and now is that aging pipelines will rupture in populated areas. The U.S. is crisscrossed by nearly 300,000 miles of gas transmission pipelines, more than half of which were installed before 1970. The pre-1970 pipelines have a significantly higher failure rate because they have been exposed to environmental forces longer and newer pipelines have been made with improved safety technology, the board said.

There is wide variation in states' approaches to pipeline safety oversight in high-consequence areas, and there isn't enough federal-to-state and state-to-state coordination between inspectors, the board said.

The board issued 28 recommendations as the result of the report, most of them to federal regulators. They urged states to adopt more costly pipeline inspection methods that are more likely to find problems. They also urged federal inspectors to work more closely with state inspectors and establish a mentoring program for them. The board found that state inspectors often lack the expertise in some areas necessary to safety oversight.

The board also urged improvements to a national pipeline mapping system so that states and operators could better determine which areas should be designated high consequence and therefore given more attention.

TRAIN DERAILMENTS CAUSED BY HUMAN ERRORS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN FOR AND INHERENTLY THE MOST DANGEROUS: HUMAN ERROR — UNINTENTIONALLY BACKING THE REAR OF A FREIGHT TRAIN ONTO ANOTHER RAIL LINE — CAUSED A TWO-TRAIN COLLISION AND DERAILMENT LAST JULY IN SLINGER, WI THAT PROMPTED THE EVACUATION OF MORE THAN 120 VILLAGE RESIDENTS AND THE SPILL OF 4,000 GALLONS OF DIESEL

TRAIN DERAILMENTS CAUSED BY HUMAN ERRORS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN FOR AND INHERENTLY THE MOST DANGEROUS:   HUMAN ERROR — UNINTENTIONALLY BACKING THE REAR OF A FREIGHT TRAIN ONTO ANOTHER RAIL LINE — CAUSED A TWO-TRAIN COLLISION AND DERAILMENT LAST JULY IN SLINGER, WI THAT PROMPTED THE EVACUATION OF MORE THAN 120 VILLAGE RESIDENTS AND THE SPILL OF 4,000 GALLONS OF DIESEL

Human error — unintentionally backing the rear of a freight train onto another rail line — caused a two-train collision and derailment last July in Slinger that prompted the evacuation of more than 120 village residents, according to reports submitted to federal transportation officials.

The jumble of overturned locomotives, upended freight cars and broken track visible the next morning immediately south of Slinger High School amounted to more than $3.1 million in damages, say the incident reports publicly released by the Federal Railroad Administration.

An estimated 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the lead locomotive.

Minutes before the July 20 collision, a northbound Wisconsin & Southern Railroad train of two locomotives and 64 freight cars stopped after it had cleared the other track at the crossing of two rail lines east of Kettle Moraine Drive.

The engineer then decided to back up the long train — known as a shoving movement — to pick up a crew member at the rail crossing, according to the company's report.

Without the aid of a spotter at the train's end as it backed up, the engineer drove too far in reverse and several cars were pushed across the other rail line, according to the company's incident report. Federal regulations do not require a person to be placed at the end of a train when it is reversed.

By that time, a southbound Canadian National Railway Co. train with three locomotives and 98 freight cars already had entered the village and a signal light gave it authority to proceed into the crossing when the crash occurred at 8:34 p.m. It was traveling at a speed of 38 miles per hour, the company's report says.

Wisconsin & Southern officials in Madison did not respond to telephone messages and emails requesting comments on the crash.

On July 21, a Wisconsin & Southern official said the company was investigating if equipment failure or other emergency stopped the northbound train or delayed it from clearing the crossing before the arrival of the southbound Canadian National train.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has requested — but not yet received — the Federal Railroad Administration's accident investigation report of the Slinger crash.

All three of the Canadian National locomotives and four freight cars derailed in the violent collision. The company's report lists $1.86 million in equipment damage and $1.1 million in track damage.

Five cars derailed from the Wisconsin & Southern train and the company's report lists damages of $219,844.

The reports cite "absence of man on or at leading end of movement" of the Wisconsin & Southern train as the primary cause of the crash. In short, no one was there to tell the engineer when to stop.

The Wisconsin & Southern report concedes that its train moved into the crossing without authority of a signal light and that is reported as a contributing cause of the crash.

Both the engineer and conductor on the southbound Canadian National train were injured in the crash and derailment. Neither crew member on the Wisconsin & Southern train was injured.

"We're fortunate," Wisconsin Railroad Commissioner Jeff Plale said of the small number of injuries. "It could have been an awful lot worse."

Human error caused 687, or 39%, of all train accidents in the U.S. in 2013, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. The tally includes five in Wisconsin last year.

Of the national total, the absence of a person at the leading end of a shoving movement was the third-most common, with a total of 65.

Human error has caused 444 train accidents in the U.S. so far this year (2014). Twelve occurred in Wisconsin.

Of the national total this year, the absence of a person at the leading end of a shoving movement was the second-most common, with a total of 48.

Wisconsin & Southern Railroad's brief report of the crash to federal regulators does not explain why its employee could not walk to rejoin the train without getting picked up.

Weather was not a consideration. It was a warm summer evening with clear skies and a temperature of 70 degrees at the time of the crash.

TRAIN DERAILMENTS CAUSED BY HUMAN ERRORS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN FOR AND INHERENTLY THE MOST DANGEROUS: A MISPLACED PIECE OF SAFETY EQUIPMENT TRIGGERED THE SLOW-MOTION DERAILMENT OF 18 RAILROAD CARS ON OCTOBER 23, 2014 AT THE SPRAWLING SELKIRK RAIL YARD

 

TRAIN DERAILMENTS CAUSED BY HUMAN ERRORS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN FOR AND INHERENTLY THE MOST DANGEROUS:   A MISPLACED PIECE OF SAFETY EQUIPMENT TRIGGERED THE SLOW-MOTION DERAILMENT OF 18 RAILROAD CARS ON OCTOBER 23, 2014 AT THE SPRAWLING SELKIRK RAIL YARD

A misplaced piece of safety equipment triggered the slow-motion derailment of 18 railroad cars on October 23, 2014 at the sprawling Selkirk rail yard, the state Department of Transportation said Thursday.

Eighteen cars — two of which had been earlier emptied of highly explosive propane — derailed about 7:40 p.m. at the sprawling Selkirk yard, which can handle thousands of freight cars a day for rail company CSX and is a critical transit gateway to much of the Northeast. No cars ruptured or spilled, and no one was hurt.

State transportation investigators said the mishap was caused by safety equipment — called a derailer — inadvertently left on the tracks by a crew that had been making repairs. A derailer is meant to protect workers by blocking trains from running over them.

Another worker elsewhere later began using a remote-controlled engine to move freight cars slowly around the yard, unaware the derailer was in the path of the oncoming cars, according to a DOT statement.

"The remote control operator was moving freight cars onto that section of track when they ran into the derailer, pushing them off the tracks. Investigators believe the remote control operator was initially unaware of what was happening and continued to move the cars down the track, causing more to derail," according to DOT.

Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said the accident, coming days after a liquid propane spill at a tank farm near a sprawling interstate highway intersection, shows the Capital Region is "dancing with the devil" as fossil fuel-laden trains surge through from the Midwest.

Fifteen of the cars in Selkirk had been righted by Thursday afternoon, said CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle. He said four cars were classified for hazardous materials, including two for propane, as well as one containing residue of a chemical herbicide and another containing an industrial acid.

Doolittle said "several of the remaining cars were empty, and none of the other cars contained any hazardous freight." He said the accident was not causing backups or delays elsewhere on CSX lines.

A vocal opponent of a surge of crude oil rail shipments from North Dakota that are arriving daily in Albany, some carried by CSX, McCoy said the rail company was "downplaying" the mishap and "making it sound like less than it was." He and Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple went to the yard Wednesday night to inspect the mishap.

Derailed cars were "stacked two or three high," said McCoy. "There was a huge crater or hole near one of the derailed cars ... and one car was leaning against" a tanker that was marked with a placard identifying its contents as propane. "Cars were beaten up, dented in. It looked like a bomb had gone off."

State DOT spokesman Beau Duffy said CSX notified the state at 8:23 p.m., within a one-hour notification window required under law. He said previous state inspections of the yard have "not found anything out of the ordinary."

This is the second derailment at the Selkirk yard this year. In February, 13 tanker cars each carrying about 29,000 gallons of highly flammable crude oil derailed, but did not spill or explode. DOT later fined CSX $5,000 for failing to notify the state of the derailment within the one-hour requirement.

Later, inspectors from DOT and the Federal Railroad Administration looked at a mile of track in the Selkirk yard and found 20 "non-critical defects" that were to be repaired, according to a March press release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

On Monday, there was "a small release" of liquid propane from a tank farm in North Albany, near the intersections of Interstates 90 and 787, according to statement from tank farm owner Global Partners.

Workers found the leak during a "routine site inspection" about 3:45 p.m., according to a statement by Global Partners Vice President Edward J. Faneuil. The company informed the city Fire Department and burned off "excess gas which could not be recovered," he said. No one was hurt and the cause of the leak was being investigated.

McCoy said flames from the gas burn went on for hours Monday night. City Fire Chief Warren Abriel said his department was notified by Global about 5 p.m. that they were going to burn off excess gas from one of its storage tanks. He said he was not aware that burn was linked to a leak.

Burning gas vented from tanks is a routine procedure at the Global facility that is not unusual, said Abriel. Global expanded its 540,000-gallon propane storage facility in April; it has been receiving propane shipments by rail there since April 2013.

Spokesman from both state DOT and the state Department of Environmental Conservation said their agencies were not required to be notified about the propane spill.