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Show The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH Friday, December4, 1998 Explosion OfGasPipeline Injures 4 Workers er, but no victims were found. “It blew several of [the vehiA natural-gas pipeline exploded Near Arches National Park on Thursday moming,injuring several workers and closing U.S. 181from Moab to Interstate 70, @ Continued from A-i cles] across the highway,” Me- cham said. He said workers told him that they had only three minutes to run away from the escaping gas beforeit blew, andsaid it was “ab- solutely amazing” no one was moreseriouslyhurt. Initial reports had as many as eight people dead, 60 injured and Stephanie Kinney of Shiprock, N.M., was in a car damaged by the blast “I was coming down the road, a dozen trapped. It turned out that only four workers required treatment at Allen Memorial Hospital in Moab. Three of those suf- and suddenlythere was an explo. sion. I saw four men running down theroad with onecarrying a fered minorinjuries. A fourth required surgery for an unspecified PIPELINE IEXPLOSION| stop sign. Somethinghit our windshield and it broke,” said Kinney. “Then another loud bang and a white cloud came up. We saw internal injury Although the injuries were not 19 flames come arounda rock onto the highway. Wecould smell the gas. Thefireball melted about 2,000 onm ot feet of Highway 191. The Utah Department of Transportation did not expect the highway to be reopened until sometimetoday. Traffic to and from Moab was diverted onto state Route 128, Arches was closed, and visitors ; 128) Comner MOAB Mike Miller, Todd Adams/TheSalt LakeTribune Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. D: as severe or numerous asfirst feared, medical teams from neighboring Carbon, Emery and San Juan counties were prepared for the worst, as were doctors and nurses from Salt Lake City, Grand Junction, Colo., Farmington N.M., and Page, Ariz Notsince an October drill at the Delta Center have Salt Lake City response teams been on such alert. This time, though, they thoughtit was real and launched helicopters and a plane to fetch dozensof potential victims “The initial reports that we received were catastrophic,” said John Dwan, spokesman for University Hospital in Salt Lake City It was a false alarm for the medical teams, but by no means a nuisance Anytimeit’s‘a potentially real situation, the adrenalinis a little higher,” said Jess Gomez, a spokesman for LDS Hospital, also in Salt Lake City. That makes for a morerealistic version ofdisas- ter drills the hospitals conduct quarterly Besidesbeing ready to mobilize air support to transport victims. both of Sait Lake City’s trauma- ready hospitals put doctors and nurseson standby, and workedto- getherto ensure enough beds and surgical units were available Moab’s Allen Memorial Hospi tal went on a “Code Orange” alert that entailed setting up a triage center, calling in most of the area’s approximately 10 doctors AS and planning to move someof the patients already in the hospital spokeswoman Clinda Lasater milepipelineto parallel two exist said. ‘If those earlier reports [on northeastern Utah to a facility near Bloomfield in northwest New Mexico. said. Fearing the worst, families ural-gas liquids consisting of ethane, propane, butane andnatural gas under 1,600 pounds ofpres number ofinjured] were true, it had the potential to constitute a crisis for the hospital,” Lasater of the workers swarmed the hos- pital, said compliance officer Joette Langianese. “The family members were quite shook up, shesaid. Mostof the workersat thefire scenewerejust scared by the ex- plosion and were treated for shock, Langianesesaid The workers on the pipeline were employed by Four Four Construction of Farmington Thepipeline systemcarries nat- sure from processing plants in Utah, Wyoming and Coloradofor distribution to the Midwest, Mexi co and the Gulf Coast Damien Fagan, abiologist who works for the Nature Conservan: cy, which ownslandthepipeline is crossing, said all the agencies associated with the project ex- pressed concerns about an accident N.M., under contract with Williams Energy Co. of Tulsa, Okla Company officials arrived on thescene at 4:30 p.m. to start assessing the damage. A ten-mile ing pipelinesit ownsin a corridor that runs from Daggett County in se- gement ofthe line wasisolated by closing valves north and south of the blast site, said company spokeswoman Julie Gentz, The companyisinstalling a new, 412- ‘The scariestthingis that we all know thesekindsof accidents can happen, andtoday it happened. he said. “I’m just glad no one was seriouslyhurt. It’s verylucky.’ Tribune correspondents Layne Miller, Lisa Church, Phil Mueller and Betty Bailey contributed to this report. rel Mecham, who was supervisin; ing the park were sent out overdirt roadsexiting the north- a roadblock on Highway191, said that right after the blast, he and an Emery County Sheriff's ser- ern boundary. The fireball rolled 125 yards geant hiked up nearthecliffs to across the highway to red sand- see if anyone was trapped. 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