2000 — Aug 19, El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline Rupture and Fire, Carlsbad, NM — 12

— 12  NTSB. Pipeline Accident Report: Natural Gas Pipeline Rupture and Fire Near Carlsbad…

— 12  Nesmith/Hauritz. “3 Families, Trapped at Ground Zero.” American-Statesman, 8-22-2001.

 

Narrative Information

 

NTSB: “At 5:26 a.m., mountain daylight time, on Saturday, August 19, 2000, a 30-inch-diameter natural gas transmission pipeline operated by El Paso Natural Gas Company ruptured adjacent to the Pecos River near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The released gas ignited and burned for 55 minutes. Twelve persons who were camping under a concrete-decked steel bridge that supported the pipeline across the river were killed and their three vehicles destroyed. Two nearby steel suspension bridges for gas pipelines crossing the river were extensively damaged.”  (NTSB/PAR-03/01)   The fireball could be seen in Carlsbad, 20 miles away.

 

“The major safety issues identified in this investigation are the design and construction of the pipeline, the adequacy of El Paso Natural Gas Company’s internal corrosion control program, the adequacy of Federal safety regulations for natural gas pipelines, and the adequacy of Federal oversight of the pipeline operator….

 

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause…was a significant reduction in pipe wall thickness due to severe internal corrosion. The severe corrosion had occurred because El Paso Natural Gas Company’s corrosion control program failed to prevent, detect, or control internal corrosion within the company’s pipeline. Contributing to the accident were ineffective Federal pre-accident inspections of El Paso Natural Gas Company that did not identify deficiencies in the company’s internal corrosion control program.  The major safety issues identified in this investigation are as follows:

 

  • The design and construction of the pipeline,
  • The adequacy of El Paso Natural Gas Company’s internal corrosion control program,
  • The adequacy of Federal safety regulations for natural gas pipelines, and
  • The adequacy of Federal oversight of the pipeline operator.”  (NTSB/PAR-03/01, p. ii, v)

 

(National Transportation Safety Board. Pipeline Accident Report: Natural Gas Pipeline Rupture and Fire Near Carlsbad, New Mexico, August 19, 2000.  Washington, DC: NTSB/PAR-03/01, February 11, 2003, 66 pages.)

 

Nesmith and Haurwitz: On a more personal note – the 12 campers had names:

 

“The fire burned for 59 minutes and 52 seconds, and the roar of the flames induced ground vibrations that registered on the New Mexico Tech seismometers. The firefighters watched, believing that when it was out they would put out the surrounding brush fires and go home. Only when the gas had been turned off and the flames had burned themselves to silence were the screams of victims in the river heard. When the rescuers found them, they were hideously burned.

 

“Burned so badly that a firefighter said she looked like a mummy, 18-year-old Amy Smith Heady lay in the mud on the bank of the Pecos River, crying for her three small children. “My babies are dead,” she said over and over…. Heady’s father, Bobby Smith, was sitting nearby, badly injured.  ‘I don’t think any of my grandkids made it’….

 

“Three families, linked by marriage and shared grandchildren, were camping by the Pecos River…when a natural gas pipeline exploded and caught fire about 100 yards away. Six members of the Heady, Smith and Sumler families, including Heady’s 6-month-old twins, Timber and Tamber, and the twins’ 22-month-old sister, Kelsey, died at the campsite…. Firefighters found …[their] bodies…with the residue of a playpen melted around them.”

 

“Six others — three women, two men and a little girl — made it to the river and tried to swim away from the searing heat of a tower of flame nearly 50 stories high. They got about 300 yards downstream. Royle and Amy Heady were dying. Bobby Smith and two others died later that day. Another young woman lived 10 days. None of the 12 campers, all from the Carlsbad area, survived.”  (Nesmith and Haurwitz 2001)

 

“In May, the president of the company whose pipeline ruptured lobbied the U.S. Senate to reject bills to increase safety fines against pipeline operators.”  (Nesmith and Haurwitz 2001)

 

Sources

 

National Transportation Safety Board. Pipeline Accident Report: Natural Gas Pipeline Rupture and Fire Near Carlsbad, New Mexico, August 19, 2000.  Washington, DC: NTSB/PAR-03/01, February 11, 2003, 66 pages. Accessed 5-25-2016 at: http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/PAR0301.pdf

 

Nesmith, Jeff, and Ralph K. M Hauritz. “3 Families, Trapped at Ground Zero.” American-Statesman (Carlsbad, NM), July 22, 2001. Accessed at:  http://www.statesman.com/specialreports/content/specialreports/pipelines/22pipecarlsbad.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild125_prod=J92GJh9CCJ1hD21gwYpjVTQr2GpnFxGS7LJcgrJyF7qyZl2JGrth!-1423742111&UrAuth=aN`NUObN[UbTTUWUXUaUZTZU_UWUcU_UZU]UbUcTYWVVZV&urcm=y