CENTERPOINT ENERGY GAS TRANSMISSION — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-10-23

Gas transmission and gathering incident in GLENWOOD, PIKE County, AR. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 2712 NATURAL GAS released, $172,676 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: 20110384.

Operator ID: 602.

Reported incident date: 10/23/2011 3:14.

Location detail: GLENWOOD TBS

Cause detail: LIGHTNING

Cause detail: ON 10/23/2011 AT 01:26 CEGT SYSTEM CONTROL RECEIVED CALL FROM A DISTRIBUTION FIELD TECHNICIAN REPORTING THAT THE GLENWOOD TOWN BORDER STATION WAS ON FIRE. SYSTEM CONTROL NOTIFIED CEGT FIELD TECHNICIANS AT 01:36 AND 01:42. THEY WERE DISPATCHED TO THE LOCATION TO INVESTIGATE THE REPORTED FIRE. AT 03:14 FIELD PERSONNEL REPORTED TO SYSTEM CONTROL THAT THEY WERE ON SCENE AND THEY CONFIRMED THAT THE TOWN BORDER STATION IS ON FIRE. THEY REPORTED THAT THE RELIEF VALVE IS BLOWING, BUT NOT ON FIRE. FIELD PERSONNEL ARE WORKING ON A PLAN TO GET THE GAS SHUT OFF TO TOWN BORDER. AT 03:58 VALVES ARE SHUT OFF AND THE FIRE WAS OUT AT 4:01. THE SITUATION WAS UNDER CONTROL AND SECURED. AT 04:01 THE FACILITY WAS SHUT DOWN, BUT THE GAS SUPPLY TO CUSTOMERS WAS MAINTAINED FROM AN ALTERNATE SOURCE. NO CUSTOMERS LOST SERVICE DUE TO THE INCIDENT. FIVE HOMES (10 PEOPLE) WERE TEMPORARILY EVACUATED DURING THE INCIDENT BY THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. THE FIRE DEPARTMENT ALLOWED EVACUEES TO RETURN AS SOON AS THE FIRE WAS OUT AND ALL WERE BACK IN THEIR HOMES THE FOLLOWING MORNING. ON 11/10/2011 A TEMPORARY REGULATOR STATION WAS INSTALLED WHILE A REPLACEMENT STATION IS BEING CONSTRUCTED. ALTHOUGH THE FACILITY WAS REROUTED AND FED BY ALTERNATE SOURCES, THE CHANGE TO COLDER WEATHER BROUGHT ON THE NEED TO INSTALL THE TEMPORARY REGULATOR STATION WHILE CONSTRUCTING THE REPLACEMENT REGULATOR STATION.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — LIGHTNING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $183,917 reported total cost, $100,105.612 in 1984 dollars, $238,869.782 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.