SOUTHERN STAR CENTRAL GAS PIPELINE, INC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-07-05

Gas transmission and gathering incident in TOPEKA, SHAWNEE County, KS. Reported cause: OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.13 NATURAL GAS released, $145,000 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: 20130075.

Operator ID: 31711.

Reported incident date: 7/5/2013 15:08.

Location detail: 180/393+27

Cause detail: ELECTRICAL ARCING FROM OTHER EQUIPMENT OR FACILITY

Cause detail: A HIGH VOLTAGE LINE CAME DOWN ON SOUTHERN STAR'S SERVICE LINE FROM THE TRANSMISSION LINE THIS ALLOWED THE HIGH VOLTAGE TO ENTER THE ELECTRIC METER FOR THE FACILITY. THIS HIGH VOLTAGE DESTROYED THE METER AND ALLOWED THE HIGH VOLTAGE TO FOLLOW THE GROUNDING WIRE FROM THE METER TO THE MEASUREMENT SETTING. THE HIGH VOLTAGE FOLLOWED THE GROUNDING WIRE TO THE GROUND STRAPPING FOR THE MEASUREMENT BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT CAUSING IGNITION. THE IGNITION WAS FUELED OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING BY A CONTROLLER VENT LINE. THE HEAT FROM THE FIRE IS BELIEVED TO HAVE DAMAGED SEALS CAUSING GAS TO LEAK AND THE FIRE TO SPREAD TO THE INTERIOR OF THE METER BUILDING. THE FIRE AND BLOWING GAS WAS REPORTED TO SOUTHERN STAR GAS CONTROL AT 3:13 PM ON 7/5/2013. GAS CONTROL NOTIFIED OPERATIONS OF THE ISSUE. OPERATIONS ARRIVED ON SCENE AT 3:57 PM. FIRE DEPARTMENT WORKED TO GET FIRED CONTAINED WHILE WESTAR (HIGH VOLTAGE LINE) WORKED TO CUT POWER. THE FIRE WAS EXTINGUISHED AT 4:55 PM AND OPERATIONS BEGAN TO CONTAIN GAS FLOW WHICH WAS STOPPED AT 5:13 PM. ALL FLOW COMPUTERS WERE DAMAGED IN FIRE CAUSING THE METER TO BE BYPASSED UNTIL REPAIRS ARE MADE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE — ELECTRICAL ARCING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $145,004 reported total cost, $75,002.256 in 1984 dollars, $184,703.475 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.