This is why you 'Call before you dig


You all know about the law requiring you to call for utility locating before you do any excavation.!!
The pictures below are a result of a guy using a power post hole digger with out calling for "locates" and he hit an underground, high-pressure cross country gas pipe.


They never found the man or the digger.

 

Holy Crap!!! What the heck was he digging for that he got that deep? That line looks like it is buried at least eight feet deep.

 

Whoa! Did that just happen?

I did not hear about it anywhere else. Got any links to more info?

That must have been a HUGE fireball.

As for finding the guy, lol. They can stop looking.

 

yup, ive seen that picture multiple times!!

i work for an underground utility locate company, I run into so many Contractors that say they didnt know it is a law to call.. well, when i send them an invoice for the damage costs ( sometimes $100k+) they realize it's the smart thing to do.. the funniest part the service is 100% free for contractors to call.. they are just lazy

CALL 811 BEFORE YOU DIG!

 

Holy sh*t, when I first saw that I thought it was a sprinkler line until I saw the 2 guys standing there.

 

Jeees! What a crater

 

The collateral damage is what is amazing to me.

 

It least it was painless for the guy.....

 

As painless as being blown up!

 

In the .01 seconds he had between the fireball starting and his evaporation, it probably hurt pretty bad.

 

FAKE!

Well the OPs story at least. That was a Natural Gas SHIPPING line in VA. It was leaking and of course a spark from a car on the nearby road. KABOOM. I dont remember if anyone died. It was 06 or 07.

FYI, When we locate lines, we hit them with a pointed length of metal called a probe rod. Takes more then post hole diggers to break through a STEEL pipe.

 

I got this in my email today. but i did do some searching and came up with this.......

http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/gasmain.asp

then i came up with this.........

http://www.appomattoxnews.com/2008/p...explosion.html

no where in the second link, did they say that a man digging a hole hits gas line. I think it's a lie. what you guys think?

 

I think 1st4x4 already gave you your answer...

 

I've seen that fly across my email several times. There's little to no way that:

1. You could rupture a steel line like that with a post-hole digger and;
2. You could get a post-hole digger that deep.

Glad someone posted the snopes link... I was going to pull it back up. It's still scary evidence of what a pipeline rupture can do...

None the less, it is an important lesson. Always call BUD before you dig! It's a free service (paid for by the utility companies because they don't want you damaging their infrastructure!)...

 

that email/pics of this damage went around my company last year and we were told that a guy was using a power auger to install posts for a fence when the gas line was hit.. i forgot where it happened but thats the story going around the underground utility locate industry

RP, you are right. the utility companies pay my company to locate the facilities.

CALL BEFORE YOU DIG!