Fire at gas plant called 'no big deal'

Fire at gas plant called 'no big deal'

November 27, 2001

Journal staff report

A natural-gas plant east of Yellow Jacket suffered a small fire on Sunday evening.

According to Beverly Chipman, a spokesperson for Williams Gas Company, lightning struck a power pole near a Williams Gas pipeline on Sunday, and the fire from the pole lit the propane being vented from a nearby pipeline.

"It was an 18-inch flame, sort of like a pilot light," said Chipman.

Jeff Yoder with the Pleasant View fire department agreed that the fire was "no big deal," and "just a flame at the end of the stack" that probably burned all of Sunday before someone noticed it that evening because it burned blue.

Yoder said that a Williams official showed up and turned off the valves to let the fire burn out.

No buildings or equipment were damaged by the fire.

Chipman said the amount of gas vented from the pipeline is "minuscule" and if the wind would have been blowing any harder the fire would have blown out on its own.