A gas line explosion Thursday prompted Middleton officials to issue both an evacuation and shelter in place order.
Residents near Purple Sage Road and Duff Lane in northeast Middleton heard what sounded like a big explosion followed by low rumbling noise.
“There was a big vibration and a big boom of some kind and then it was over. I had no idea it was a gas line,” said 89-year-old Ava Lutteman, who has lived in the area for 60 years.
Shortly after the bang, Lutteman received an evacuation order on her phone but she decided to stay put.
“I thought, well, a half a mile ... I don't think any explosion could dislodge me from this house,” she said.
Middleton Fire Chief David Jones says the explosion happened in a privately owned corn field at 10:39 a.m.
“We arrived on scene to find that a construction worker had dug through a 22 inch section of the Williams gas transmission pipeline with an excavator, and there was gas being released into the, into the air,” he said from the Fire Station located a couple of miles from the site.
About a four mile area around the incident was shut down and the evacuation order was lifted about an hour later. The pipeline valves were shut off but not before quite a bit of gas was released in the atmosphere.
“For that big a pipe to flow for an hour or more was significant,” he said.
“Natural gas, unlike propane, rises in the atmosphere, the weather today was conducive for a good rise of the natural gas. So it all went pretty high in the atmosphere and dissipated,” he added, saying large transmission lines can easily ignite from a spark and blow a crater.
The pipeline had about 750 pounds of pressure per square inch.
“We were pretty lucky that this was just a release of natural gas and not a true fireball or explosion,” said Jones.
Jones also says that people should call 811 before doing any digging to know where gas lines are located. The driver of the excavator was treated for minor injuries.
