Home explosion, new risk

[Mtneer]

Normally when I see headlines of a house getting leveled, I expect hash oil or meth production mixed with stupidity (my first thought about Firestone before info came in). This happened last night in Breck, photos are impressive (https://www.summitdaily.com/news/two...breckenridge/_).

The explosion is believed to have been caused by snow and ice falling off the roof and breaking the outside gas meter attached to the home.
?Once they were able to get through the debris, they found the pipe was completely broken off at the gas meter on the ground,? said Keating. ?That must have occurred sometime in the evening when the occupants were unaware. The gas leaked into the internal part of the home in the crawl space, found an ignition source and caused an explosion.?

[izzy]

Link is 404 on my end.

[beast556]

Link is 404 on my end.

Same here

[crays]

It's just got an extra character or 2 on the end. Try this.

https://www.summitdaily.com/news/two...-breckenridge/

[BushMasterBoy]

And that is why I have 2 gas/propane detectors in the house and 3 carbon monoxide detectors. I had to put a surge suppressor on the garage door opener. Lightning rods are next...

[wctriumph]

Oh man! Those guys are so lucky!

[FoxtArt]

As I passed the scene to get a clear picture of the incident we had debris in the roadway, glass and stools. So I immediately assumed we had an explosion, which we ultimately did.”

In their defense, I'd have shit myself too. Shit in the street is also a pretty good sign of an explosion.

[ray1970]

In their defense, I'd have shit myself too. Shit in the street is also a pretty good sign of an explosion.

Lol. Like.

[FoxtArt]

I'm not sure, but it seems to me if your gas line completely severed like that, where it can vent inside, the gas would reach flammable/explosive levels in a broad area (iirc, 8%? I forget) long before xcel or any other company arrived to shut it off, and there will always be an ignition source inside. (Pilot flame on your hot water heater for instance). The smell would be crazy strong if you were inside. Pretty sure that a house would be toast in every case of that. Now, if it broke in such a way that it's not venting inside, hard to say. Less combustibles outside in most cases. Code keeps any intakes or windows more than 3 feet away, and especially if the closest window is closed, I think most of the time the house would make it. Code also keeps a lot of combustion sourcing appliances (like a compressor, for instance) around a corner or at a distance. So, there's ironically not much to ignite natural gas as long as it stays outside.

If anyone isn't aware, the only reason natural gas smells is because it's an additive chemical so you can smell leaks; been that way ever since natural gas filled an elementary school and blew up, killing everyone about a century ago. Despite sitting in it, they had no way of knowing, it has no natural smell.

[Irving]

If the line is severed at the meter, how are there any ignition sources left in the home?