The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission Thursday approved a settlement with Peoples Natural Gas Co. over the July 26, 2021, explosion and fire in Tyrone that killed a resident, injured four others, destroyed a house and damaged two others.

The settlement calls for Peoples to pay a $325,000 civil penalty, make a variety of safety enhancements to its policies and procedures and provide $50,000 so that area fire companies and businesses can buy methane detectors — and in addition, not to seek recovery of the monetary losses through future rate increases, according to a PUC news release.

The safety enhancements include:

— Revisions to call center policies so potential pipeline damage is quickly identified and so there is coordination with 911 centers on emergency notifications;

— Updated policies for on-site emergency response, including escalation procedures if facility damage is suspected;

— Expansion and standardization of training programs, potentially with help from outside expertise and by using emergency simulations;

— Better documentation, reporting and internal review of incidents;

— Better coordination with emergency responders and electric utilities during emergencies;

— And more oversight of excavations, especially trenchless digging, like the activity that caused the Tyrone incident.

Chain of events

The explosion and fire that day killed Anna L. Hunsicker, 83, who lived at 1306 Pennsylvania Ave.

The problem began when workers who were replacing a water line and using a horizontal drilling machine to create an opening for a water pipe to be driven through accidentally bored a 2-inch hole through a 6-inch plastic gas main in front of Hunsicker’s house, according to the commission’s 71-page opinion and order.

It was later discovered that the drill bit entered at the 7 or 8 o’clock position on the gas line and exited at the 4 or 5 o’clock position, according to the opinion and order.

At 11:52 a.m. on the day of the incident, the contractor’s foreman on the job reported a smell of gas outside Hunsicker’s house to the Peoples call center but didn’t say he was part of a crew drilling a bore hole for a water line nearby, according to the documents.

At 12:04 p.m., the call center issued an emergency service order, and the Peoples operations center promptly dispatched a serviceman to the scene.

He arrived at 12:28 p.m., according to the opinion and order.

Shortly afterward, the serviceman called his supervisor and asked him to send a repair crew, which was dispatched soon after that, according to the opinion and order.

At 12:50 p.m., the serviceman called the supervisor again “to report a serious incident involving suspected bore or missile damage to the Peoples’ gas main line,” the opinion and order states.

“(The contractor crew, however,) did not inform Peoples of any suspected bore or missile damage to the Peoples’ gas line at the time (of) the interaction with the (serviceman) or at any later point,” the opinion and order states.

The serviceman at some point entered the basement of 1306 to determine whether gas was in the house, according to the opinion and order.

At 1:08, with the serviceman still in the basement, the explosion occurred.

The serviceman was among those injured and was taken to the hospital.

The Peoples crew was finally able to shut off the gas around the vicinity of the fire at 3:18 p.m., using shutoffs at 13th Street and Cottage Street.

About 8 p.m., after excavating to uncover the damaged main, workers discovered the holes made by the horizontal drill.

They finished repairing the leak on the main about 10 p.m.

Choosing to settle

The PUC’s Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement’s (I&E’s) initial complaint against Peoples recommended a civil penalty of $800,000, according to the opinion and order.

The crux of that complaint: “Peoples failed to take necessary actions to minimize the hazards of released gas and failed to use every reasonable effort to protect the public from danger … failed to train its Call Center and Operations Center employees on its Emergency Response Plan, failed to submit (an incident report form), failed to conduct a post-incident review to ensure that its emergency response procedures were followed and were adequate, failed to have a root cause analysis developed and failed to conduct post-accident drug and alcohol testing of its employee or document the decision not to administer the test — all of which created an ongoing, unsafe and hazardous condition.”

There were also 21 counts of violations of the Commission’s Regulations and the CFR, according to the complaint.

The commission decided to settle with the company, rather than pursue litigation, because it’s PUC policy to promote settlements as they save time, effort and expense, according to the opinion and order.

Despite the civil penalty, Peoples argues “that its actions were at all times prior to, during and following the tragic incident, in full compliance with its established practices and procedures, written documents that had been previously reviewed and approved by I&E, and compliant with state and federal pipeline safety laws and regulations,” the opinion and order states.

The commission approved the settlement against the recommendation of the administrative law judge who handled the case.

Judge Jeffrey Watson lodged numerous objections.

According to the judge, the settlement didn’t tend to promote the public interest, there was a lack of evidentiary findings; there are gaps in the timeline of the incident included in the settlement; there is no explanation why the repair crew took so long to arrive at the scene; and there were parts of the agreement that contradicted other parts — including the PUC’s Investigation and Enforcement arm’s contention that the public was put at risk vs. the company’s assertion that none of the company’s actions “played any factor in the incident,” according to the opinion and order.

The PUC’s investigative arm countered that its investigation was thorough, according to the opinion and order.

The burdens of the settlement on Peoples “should serve as a robust deterrent for any future alleged violations such as those raised in the complaint,” the commission states.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.