No one could have predicted/nothing could be done/regulation is always bad/hoocoodanode/these things just happen:
People miles away reported hearing a ”blowtorch” sound and could see a glow in the sky from a gas pipeline explosion that shook residents in eastern Ohio, an official said Friday.
”From 20 to 25 miles away they could hear a cracking,” said Jim Hoppel, president of the board of commissioners governing Columbiana County. ”Some people said it was like a blowtorch.”
The Thursday night explosion and fire happened a day after a house explosion in neighboring Pennsylvania took the lives of five residents and destroyed several homes in Allentown.
A dispatcher for the county sheriff’s office said officials had no reports of injury in the blast near Hanoverton. She said there was no mandatory evacuation but those in the village of about 400 people and surrounding towns who wanted to leave their homes could find shelter at a school and at the Salineville Fire Department.
Drill, baby, drill. And of course there is no need for a miniscule tax increase to inspect these things. The free market will sort it out! Regulators just slow down progress! People will speak with their wallets and buy other natural gas, and the market will punish those responsible! Have faith in the invisible hand!