Source: Houston Chronicle, page 1
(http://www.chron.com/cgibin/auth/story/content/chronicle/page1/
97/08/12/explosion.html)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com

Gas cloud forces evacuation at 3 prison units

By CINDY HORSWELL
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

DAYTON State prison officials began a massive evacuation of
inmates from three facilities Monday night after a cloud of
flammable gas gushing from a break in a pipeline continued
drifting toward the prisons.

More than 4,000 inmates at the Liberty County complex were being
placed aboard buses amid beefedup security for the trip to other
counties the men to the Stiles prison unit in Beaumont and the
women to the civic center in Humble in northeast Harris County.

"This is the first time I can recall the Texas prison system ever
having to evacuate inmates for a gas leak," said Gary Gomez, a
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman. "The only other
(evacuation) I can recall was during the 1980s for a hurricane."

Authorities earlier had moved about 2,000 inmates from their
cells to get them farther from the drifting gas, but had not
planned to remove them from the threeunit complex north of
Dayton. As the liquefied petroleum gas continued spewing through
a twoinch hole in a Chevron pipeline, however, they decided not
to risk a catastrophe in case the gas should continue to
accumulate on prison grounds.

"The leak is going to last a little longer than we thought,"
Gomez said. "We had not expected it to last this long through
the night. We're just doing this to be on the safe side."

Emergency fire and rescue crews and lawenforcement authorities
were closely monitoring the site on FM 686 a halfmile off Texas
321.

Chevron crews, meanwhile, used a portable flare to begin burning
off the gas at a point farther down the line. The leak was 8
miles from a shutoff valve, however, meaning it could take 24 to
36 hours for the remaining gas in the line to burn off, said
Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Richard Vasser.

The leak, which developed about 2:30 p.m. as workers were
cleaning out the pipeline, was the third accident involving
highly flammable substances in Liberty County in the past week.

A nearby Sam's Club distribution warehouse also was evacuated
because of the creeping vapors, but there apparently are no homes
near the site. No serious injuries had been reported, although
about 20 people from the prisons, most of them inmates,
complained of nausea, breathing difficulties and burning eyes.
One employee and five inmates were taken to an area hospital for
treatment, officials said.

The gas formed a pungent white cloud that drifted on the steady
breeze toward the prison grounds, only about 100 yards away. The
first facility alerted was the L.V. Hightower Unit, where
employees reported hearing a "popping" sound and then smelled gas
seeping through windows and vents in the dormitories, which are
not airconditioned, said Warden Tim Keith.

"We decided to move the inmates outside to get as much air as
possible," he said.

Keith said the 1,300 inmates in his facility a mediumsecurity
unit for male prisoners were herded to the fenced prison yard,
which had been ringed by guards.

Air testing soon showed the fumes had dissipated, and inmates
were returned to their cells after about 45 minutes outdoors.

About the same time, the 503 women inmates in the nearby Dempsie
Henley Substance Abuse Facility were removed from the prison
dorms and walked, twobytwo, across a field to another women's
unit, the Lucille G. Plane State Jail, said June Groom, senior
warden for both facilities.

"We had armed security on horseback and the perimeter enclosed
with officers. It was not possible to escape," Groom said. "We
had smelled an odor inside and thought it best to evacuate
farther away from the source."

The Henley inmates were escorted to the recreation yard at the
Plane Unit while the estimated 2,100 inmates at the Plane
facility remained in their cells.

Groom said one inmate in her two units was affected by the fumes
and taken for medical help.

"But we had no serious problems," she said. "Everything was
handled very orderly."

Five pregnant inmates were sent to a prison facility in Texas
City as a precaution, said Larry Fitzgerald, a state prison
system spokesman.

Warden Keith of the Hightower Unit said the crisis occurred at an
opportune time: during a shift change, which enabled him to send
those who were about to go off duty to help with the exodus from
the Henley Unit while those just arriving for work maintained
order at Hightower.

"Our male inmates were not rowdy at all, only curious about what
was happening," he said. "It's surprising, but in emergency
situations the cooperation level is high."

Liberty County Emergency Management Coordinator Jim Mitchum said
the gas accumulated on the prison grounds but appeared to be
dispersing more quickly later in the day. No measurable
concentrations were detected in the prison buildings by late
Monday, he said.

Firefighters kept a steady stream of water on the leak, which
helped disperse the escaping gas and prevent it from being
ignited.

"As long as it continues to dissipate, we're OK," said Vasser,
the DPS spokesman. "The main danger was when it was first
spreading and anything from a pilot light to static electricity
could have set it off. It could have been a hell of a mess."

Chevron spokesman J.N. Barlow said the leak erupted as
maintenance workers used a device called a "pig" to clean out the
10inch line. Rushing out under 800 pounds of pressure, the gas
had enough force to "really cut you," Vasser said.

Clay Kennelly, another DPS spokesman, noted that the escaping gas
hugs the ground as it cools and is extremely flammable.

"It can flash back and spread out around the ground," he said.
"There are combustible limits around the prison grounds, but not
in the buildings."

This was the third such mishap in Liberty County in the past
week. The first occurred Aug. 3 near Devers when temporary
storage tanks exploded into a spectacular fire as a pipeline was
being purged for cleaning. That blaze took three days to
extinguish.

In the second accident, a well being drilled by the Bledsoe Oil
Co. exploded in flames about 8:20 p.m. Sunday on FM 1413 near
Dayton. Mitchum, the county emergency management coordinator,
said five workers had drilled about 6,400 feet deep when they hit
a naturalgas pocket.

It blew out the top of the drilling rig, igniting into a 75foot
fireball.

A team from Wild Well Control Inc. of Spring set up its equipment
at the site Monday and was preparing to assault the fire at
daybreak today, said the company's Peter Atkins.

"It's still burning out of control, and it's in an oil field, so
we're having to be very careful," he said, explaining that there
is a risk of igniting other well heads nearby.