Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Cleveland Disaster of 1944

LNG technology isn’t new, but it was new in 1944, when the only serious LNG-related disaster to strike the United States occurred.

It was a Friday afternoon, October 20, when one of the four storage tanks at the East Ohio Gas Company, on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, began to leak. Facing increasing demand, companies had just begun condensing natural gas by cooling it, so that more could be stored in less space. The Cleveland plant was one of the first LNG storage facilities in America, and the tank hadn’t been built strongly enough.

At 2:30 p.m., the liquid began to seep from the tank. It returned to a partially gaseous state, appearing as a white fog. The winds from Lake Eerie blew the gas vapor into the surrounding neighborhood. Some of the vapor hung low in the air, travelling along gutters, sinking into storm drains and collecting underground in the sewer system.

Then, something ignited the gas. Manhole covers were blown sky-high. Jets of fire shot up from under the street.

There wasn’t a single explosion, but many. The leaking tank exploded in the initial blast, around 2:40 p.m., and a second tank at the facility blew up around 3 p.m. Fireballs from the exploding tanks could be seen for miles around.

People who had left their houses during the initial explosion returned home, only to be incinerated as a series of new explosions occurred, with ignited gas coming up through the drainpipes and engulfing homes in flames within seconds.

Images of the scene show fire and smoke shooting high into the sky, and afterwards, workers sifting through the rubble, looking for bodies. Piles of loose bricks filled the streets, and trees were reduced to burnt stumps. A square mile of the city was destroyed, including 70 homes, two factories, and the underground infrastructure.

About 130 people were killed, including 61 who remained unidentified at the time they were buried. Approximately 225 people were injured. Husbands and children returning home from school and work found their homes completely blown away, mom and all.

The Cleveland Memory website has an amazing archive of photos from the disaster here:

http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=subjec&CISOROOT=all&CISOBOX1=East+Ohio+Gas+Co.+Explosion+And+Fire&CISOSTART=1,1

Could this happen today? Not exactly the way it did then, no. Storage tanks are much stronger, and all kinds of additional precautions are taken.

However, LNG itself is as dangerous now as it was then. If it does happen to escape, there’s no containing it and no way to predict how it will mix with surrounding air, wind, and worst of all, sparks. One commentator notes that the spill that caused this disaster was about five percent of the volume of gas held by a modern LNG tanker.