# NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC & GAS CORP — Gas distribution — incident on 2011-01-26

**Citation:** PHMSA Report 20110032  
**Type / status:** incident / historical  
**Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration  
**Effective:** 2011-01-26  
**Published:** 2011-02-22

Gas distribution incident in HORSEHEADS, CHEMUNG County, NY. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 1 fatalities, 2 injuries, 3 NATURAL GAS released, $500 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings. PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, serious incident, not fire-first.

## Document text

Gas distribution incident in HORSEHEADS, CHEMUNG County, NY. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 1 fatalities, 2 injuries, 3 NATURAL GAS released, $500 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings.

Report number: 20110032.

Operator ID: 13420.

Reported incident date: 1/26/2011 9:18.

Location detail: 198 JOSEPH STREET

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY

Cause detail: EXCAVATION ISSUE

Cause detail: IMPROPER BACKFILLING PRACTICES

Cause detail: THE COMPANY RECEIVED A REPORT OF A HOUSE EXPLOSION AND RESPONDED TO ASSIST THE FIRE DEPARTMENT AND LAW ENFORCEMENT. THE INCIDENT WAS ATTRIBUTED TO THIRD PARTY DAMAGE TO THE SERVICE LINE PIPING.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, serious incident, not fire-first.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $225,600 reported total cost, $121,018.072 in 1984 dollars, $297,943.63 in current-year dollars.

PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings.

## Provenance

- Official: Yes
- Source: <https://data.transportation.gov/api/views/27nc-rsge/files/fba42a19-f78d-44c9-9a76-4bacfc15fba0?download=true&filename=Gas%20Distribution%20Incident%20Data%20-%20January%202010%20to%20present.zip>
- Source ID: `phmsa-pipeline-incidents`
- SHA-256: `0e562b560eff3ff820445d51206cab58cc72730c8650228f410b09365f1c6b83`
- Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z
- Exported: 2026-08-23T17:07:23.900Z
- Document slug: `phmsa-incident-5e9fff826f18d8b3d6a0e90f`

### Source metadata

```json
{
  "recordKind": "pipeline_incident",
  "datasetType": "gas_distribution",
  "datasetLabel": "Gas distribution",
  "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present",
  "report": {
    "number": "20110032",
    "supplementalNumber": "33579",
    "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL",
    "receivedDate": "2011-02-22",
    "receivedDateRaw": "2/22/2011"
  },
  "operator": {
    "id": "13420",
    "name": "NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC & GAS CORP"
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2011-01-26",
    "dateRaw": "1/26/2011 9:18"
  },
  "location": {
    "city": "HORSEHEADS",
    "county": "CHEMUNG",
    "state": "NY",
    "postalCode": "14845",
    "latitude": 42.912954,
    "longitude": -76.4932571,
    "type": "PRIVATE PROPERTY",
    "details": {
      "LOCATION_STREET_ADDRESS": "198 JOSEPH STREET"
    },
    "facilityName": null
  },
  "cause": {
    "category": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE",
    "details": {
      "CAUSE_DETAILS": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY",
      "ROOT_CAUSE_CATEGORY": "EXCAVATION ISSUE",
      "ROOT_CAUSE_TYPE": "IMPROPER BACKFILLING PRACTICES",
      "NARRATIVE": "THE COMPANY RECEIVED A REPORT OF A HOUSE EXPLOSION AND RESPONDED TO ASSIST THE FIRE DEPARTMENT AND LAW ENFORCEMENT. THE INCIDENT WAS ATTRIBUTED TO THIRD PARTY DAMAGE TO THE SERVICE LINE PIPING."
    }
  },
  "consequences": {
    "fatalities": 1,
    "injuries": 2,
    "commodity": "NATURAL GAS",
    "release": "3",
    "propertyDamage": 500,
    "estimatedOperatorCost": 0,
    "estimatedEmergencyCost": 225000,
    "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null,
    "ignition": "YES",
    "explosion": "YES",
    "evacuated": 9,
    "raw": {
      "FATAL": "1",
      "INJURE": "2",
      "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "3",
      "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "500",
      "PRPTY": "225600"
    }
  },
  "provenance": {
    "viewId": "27nc-rsge",
    "viewUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/api/views/27nc-rsge",
    "assetId": "fba42a19-f78d-44c9-9a76-4bacfc15fba0",
    "archiveFilename": "Gas Distribution Incident Data - January 2010 to present.zip",
    "archiveSha256": "89c21d2ea6f5cb8ff6daad6ac60160608671a7b49c218bf9f917bfb88a2ce5a1",
    "memberPath": "incident_gas_distribution_jan2010_present.txt",
    "memberSha256": "f97da00c5f09a1cb7702d38c8148331935f286596018e5f00d927cbd80da28d3",
    "rowNumber": 1419,
    "rowSha256": "5ca9f3d4b05f5bfa9a3d9262dbb6e736c125cbde166935c9f52c4f6c9e605a0e"
  },
  "caveat": "Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings.",
  "operatorReported": true,
  "finalAgencyFinding": false,
  "flaggedAnalysis": {
    "dataAsOf": "2026-07-31",
    "flags": {
      "fireFirst": false,
      "significant": true,
      "serious": true
    },
    "standardizedCause": {
      "sevenCategory": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE",
      "sevenSubcategory": "THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE",
      "eightCategory": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE",
      "eightSubcategory": "THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE"
    },
    "costs": {
      "reported": 225600,
      "in1984Dollars": 121018.07228152928,
      "currentYearDollars": 297943.6303733635
    },
    "caveat": "PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings.",
    "provenance": {
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/data_statistics/pipeline/PHMSA_Pipeline_Safety_Flagged_Incidents.zip",
      "landingPageUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-incident-flagged-files",
      "catalogUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/Pipelines-and-Hazmat/Pipeline-Incident-Flagged-Files/qdme-9bbm",
      "retrievalMode": "official_live",
      "archivedAt": null,
      "archiveSha256": "317e6a3e16d60b9b677efe391dc40258b5dd7ead83fb8bea74cb553cedfbbdec",
      "workbook": "gd2010toPresent.xlsx",
      "sheet": "gd2010toPresent",
      "rowNumber": 124,
      "rowSha256": "05c5792cbaf87c5e4876d78106c81830833f457c23e0a36fc76681a5fd4a5a6b"
    }
  },
  "jurisdiction": "US",
  "operatorName": "NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC & GAS CORP"
}
```