Workers injured in MarkWest explosion believed to have been cleaning pipeline
Courtesy of KDKA
A view of the fire at the MarkWest Energy natural gas processing plant on Western Avenue in Chartiers Township that killed one worker and injured three others.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Firefighters work at the scene of last week’s fire at the MarkWest Energy plant in Chartiers Township.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
A view of the MarkWest plant on Western Avenue in Chartiers Township
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
A view of the MarkWest plant on Western Avenue in Chartiers Township
HOUSTON – Four workers injured Thursday night at the MarkWest Energy natural gas processing plant in Chartiers Township are believed to have been cleaning a pipeline when vapors caught fire and ignited other combustible materials, Washington County Public Safety Director Jeff Yates said Friday.
Andria Wymer, director of strategic initiatives for Energy Transportation, LLC, of Bridgeport, W.Va., confirmed that the injured were employed by the Harrison County-based company located east of Clarksburg.
“It’s currently under investigation is all we’re really allowed to say at this time,” Wymer commented.
Two of the injured were flown by medical helicopter to West Penn Hospital, while the other two went to UPMC-Mercy hospital, Pittsburgh. The landing zone was the parking lot of Western Area Career and Technology Center.
Joanna Hawkins of the federal Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s public affairs office in Philadelphia confirmed that it had opened an investigation and that “it doesn’t look like Energy Transportation, LLC, has a prior OSHA investigation history.”
Hawkins said she had no information about the condition of those injured and that OSHA has six months in which to complete an investigation.
Chartiers Township police and firefighters were notified of the industrial accident at 6:03 p.m.
Seven other fire departments, a state police fire marshal, four staffers from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Washington County hazardous materials team also responded.
Yates speculated a crew was performing its work at temporary tanks that are stationery because, when full, their weight immobilizes them. The initial flash, which caused a whooshing noise, ignited condensate.
Yates described the condensate as “one of the heavier products that are part of the process,” having properties similar to gasoline.
Also burned was some plastic around the retention area and insulating blankets that were on three of the tanks.
The haz-mat team spread foam, but “once the initial flash was over, there was not a lot left burning.”
“There was a lot of perimeter monitoring to make sure there were no flammable vapors outside the area,” Yates said.
“Considering the scope of the plant, it was confined to a relatively small area. Nothing happened to any equipment in the plant.”
Firefighters continued to spray water from a tall extension to protect surrounding tanks, Yates said.
The Washington County Firemen’s Association has a simulated well pad across Western Avenue from the vast MarkWest site. “We’ve had industry bring a lot of people in to provide specialized training,” Yates said.
“We’ve done a ton of training on stuff like this,” he continued. “We’ve dealt with incidents like this at least a dozen times” during the decade or so since drilling began in Washington County’s Marcellus Shale.
MarkWest bills itself as the largest midstream service provider in the Marcellus Shale. Its Houston processing and fractionation facility at 800 Western Ave. is one of six processing facilities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Chartiers police, who said there was no evacuation of the area, handled traffic control and left MarkWest just after 10 p.m.
Lauren Fraley, community relations coordinator for DEP, said her department’s investigation centered on determining environmental impacts, which appeared, Friday afternoon, to be limited to the use of foam used to extinguish the fire.
“The foam has been contained and DEP observed no impacts to waterways,” she wrote in response to an email inquiry.
“Crews are on-site remediating the foam that migrated into a sediment pond and any contaminated gravel at the site.”
Jamal Kheiry, a spokesman for Marathon Petroleum Corp. corporate affairs said he had no additional information to offer Friday.