Deadly Ground Rod Disaster

[Kode VioL8R]

Everyone, just a reminder to excercise extreme caution when driving ground rods. Make sure you know where all other underground utilities are. Yesterday a cable worker struck a gas line driving a rod. The massive gas leak caused an explosion killing two people. Here's a copy of the news story as it reads on www.indystar.com.

HUNTINGTON, Ind. — A cable company worker hit a natural gas line at a home that later exploded, killing two people and injuring two others, officials said.

A resident of the two-story home, Emilie Wilson, 75, and R. Alan Dalrymple, a 21-year veteran Vectren Corp. worker, died in the explosion that flattened the home Monday, the Huntington County coroner’s office said.
The woman’s husband, Jack Wilson, and the Comcast worker were being treated today at the St. Joseph Hospital burn unit in Fort Wayne, officials said. The extent of their injuries was not available.

The Comcast worker called Vectren to report that he had pierced a gas line with a metal rod, Vectren spokesman Mike Roeder said Tuesday. The 50-year-old Dalrymple came to the home, and the explosion happened about 5 p.m., soon after firefighters arrived, authorities said.

Comcast spokesman Mark Apple said in a statement that the company was investigating what happened.

Fire spread to two neighboring homes, but no one in those homes was reported injured.

Huntington County Coroner Leon Hurlburt said the blast destroyed much of the house before the fire spread.

“From all indications this was a natural gas explosion,” he said.

Firefighters needed more than an hour to extinguish the flames in the line of homes near downtown Huntington, about 25 miles southwest of Fort Wayne.

Fire crews from throughout Huntington County responded and traffic was diverted away from downtown.

[mdshunk]

My, very sorry to learn that. I've pierced a cast iron sewer line before. I generally try to scope out the gas curb stop and the gas meter location, and draw a line between the two in my head so that I don't drive the rods there. In my area, the Comcast guys aren't allowed to drive their own ground rods. They won't connect your subscriber drop if they don't have anything existing to bond to.

[Kode VioL8R]

My, very sorry to learn that. I've pierced a cast iron sewer line before. I generally try to scope out the gas curb stop and the gas meter location, and draw a line between the two in my head so that I don't drive the rods there. In my area, the Comcast guys aren't allowed to drive their own ground rods. They won't connect your subscriber drop if they don't have anything existing to bond to.

I personally try to avoid driving seperate ground rods (for CATV) because I'm somewhat familiar with the NEC and their forbidding of such action, and I actually do understand why that rule exists. I always try to bond to the house's electrical ground. I'm not sure why the local company has been allowing the installation of ground rods.

[absania]

After getting to see the horror stories here its more than clear to me not every home making has been a great experience to people. Moreover no one can be relied upon nowadays as it seems. I learned whenever a house is being made the owner of the house requires to be there and supervising things as no one can be called perfect or can be completely relied on when it comes to building a house.

[Ric]

A few years ago I put up a chain link fence at my home. I called Blue Stake to come and locate the electrical/phone/etc lines so I would not get into them. A friend and I used a gas auger to dig the 37 post holes, and complete the fence. The lines were marked along the driveway to the house, not even in my dig area.

A couple years ago, I was doing another project and called Blue Stake again. This time the guy marked the main electrical power from a pole on the opposite end on my property 150 feet from my driveway, running on a straight line under the lawn, to the house. This line was about ONE FOOT from where I had augered a post hole. Both of us could have been killed if we would had hit the line. So much for professional locators.