Photos/Story By: William D. Fletcher
Also: Gas Fire Slide Show
On October 17, 2000 at 9:08 am the Hebron Fire Protection District was dispatched to 73 Petersburg Road in Hebron, Kentucky at the Thrifty Car Rental in reference to a vehicle fire. Initial reports indicated that the vehicle on fire was close to the building.
Upon arrival, Chief Dale Harshbarger of the Hebron FPD advised all companies that the vehicle fire was instead a fire involving a mobile drilling rig and the natural gas main running parallel to Petersburg Road.
Chief Harshbarger advised that the drilling rig was fully involved, flames from the gas main were reaching sixty to seventy feet in the air and that several vehicles and the nearby car rental building were immediate exposure issues.
Nearby businesses were evacuated and master stream devices were deployed to protect the exposure building and the vehicles.
Mutual aid assistance from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Fire Department was received.
The fire had started when employees of Bluegrass Electric were at the location drilling a hole for a new street light at the intersection. While drilling the holes, employees of Bluegrass Electric advised that there was a sudden blast of pressure from the hole and that they immediately recognized that a gas main had been breached. The employees then fled the drilling rig and moments later the gas ignited. None of the employees Bluegrass Electric or of the car rental business were injured.
Cinergy, the local gas and electric utility, arrived on the scene to discontinue the flow of gas through the breached main.
Officials with Cinergy advised that the main involved was an eight inch transmission main operating at approximately 60 psi.
At 10:05 am the gas had been turned off and Hebron FPD personnel were able to extinguish the remaining fire.
The following agencies provided assistance at this incident: Boone County Emergency Management, Boone County Sheriff's Office, Boone County Police Department, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Police Department, Boone County Public Safety Communications Center, and the Boone County Public Works Department.
Damage to the drilling rig, the car rental business and the two cars is estimated at $145,000.
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