‘Safe to return’ to Middleton after digging causes gas explosion; 1 injured
Middleton residents were ordered to shelter in place for over two hours after a gas line exploded Thursday morning, according to the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office.
A worker operating heavy machinery was digging and hit a gas pipeline, which exploded around 10:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office. The worker sustained minor injuries and was transported to a local hospital, David Jones, the Middleton/Star Fire District battalion chief, told the Idaho Statesman.
The Sheriff’s Office briefly asked Middleton residents within a 4-mile radius of the intersection of Purple Sage Road and Duff Lane to evacuate Thursday morning. By around 11:45 a.m., officials lifted the evacuation order and instead asked the residents to shelter in place. The 4-mile area was “essentially the entire city of Middleton,” Doug Hart, chief deputy with the Sheriff’s Office, said at a news conference.
The natural gas transmission line is operated by Middleton-based Williams Cos. and the worker had dug through 22 inches of the pipeline, Jones said. Williams Cos. turned off the gas, Jones said, but homes should not have a gap in services because of redundant systems that Intermountain Gas has in place.
Sam Kimball, a Boise resident who owns Treasure Valley Home Inspectors, was conducting a home inspection in Middleton when the explosion occurred about a half-mile away. He said he was outside when he heard “a loud bang and this really loud roar that just kept going and going, and lasted probably about 20-25 minutes.”
“It sounded like if you were standing on the tarmac of a runway and a jet was taking off,” Kimball said by phone.
Jones said the explosion did not pose any risk to people breathing in the gas, mostly due to the morning weather.
“Natural gas is lighter than atmospheric air so it tends to rise,” Jones told the Statesman. “The weather today was actually really good for this event because of the high pressure, it allowed the gas to lift. We had a pretty good wind of 10 to 15 miles an hour southwest, which dispersed the gas pretty high in the atmosphere so there really was no concern about effects from breathing in the gas.”
Middleton students to return to a normal schedule
Residents were able to pick up their children from school during the emergency, according to one alert. Just before 2 p.m., the Middleton School District said in a news release that students would be able to remain in class for the rest of the day and were returning to a normal schedule.
Officials were particularly concerned about Mill Creek and Middleton Heights elementary schools because of their “proximity” to the gas leak, the district said. The students remained inside the buildings during the evacuation and shelter-in-place orders.
The district said it was in close contact with emergency responders who “deemed it safe” for students to remain in school, the release said. School buses were expected to follow their regular routes.
“As a school district, we understand these situations cause concern for parents,” Superintendent Marc Gee said in the release.. “Today’s efforts required coordination between multiple agencies. While we understand the desire to have as much information as possible, our first priority is to keep staff and students safe.”
