A campus facilities snowplow sheared off the pressurerelief valve on an underground propane tank in the east parking lot of the Arctic Health building last Wednesday, sending propane gas spraying into the air.
The University Fire Department responded to the leak, filled the hole with a rubber plug, and burned off excess propane gases.
The propane tank was installed in the middle of a lawn, but the addition of new parking spots brought the tank closer to the edge of the lot, said Fire Chief Edith Curry.
She then added that the failure to mark the placement of the tank was the overall cause of the accident. Facilities put in a temporary concrete barrier to mark the tank's location until a permanent marker can be installed.
They also informed the staff of the Arctic Health building of the events but did not evacuate the building, only some nearby trailers, and carefully monitored the air with gas meters. A steady easterly breeze kept the propane gases away from the building.
To repair the tank, all the liquid propane and remaining fumes inside it had to be removed or burned off, Curry said. UAF's propane provider, AmeriGas, was called to remove the liquid propane still left in the tank. Once the liquid propane was gone it was the University Fire Department's job to burn off the fumes. While a valve was opened, UAF student firefighter Brandon Doherty lit the fumes with a long handled torch. The resulting flames were not as big as the firefighters had expected, though.
"I was expecting a bigger flame," said Doherty. "I've done stuff like that before, but that was the first outside of training." It was interesting putting all the training to use, Doherty said. "We carry flares on our trucks, and what we did is we taped one to a pike pole so I had a little distance for the torch."
The burn time was only about 20 minutes, Doherty said, but the firefighters were onscene from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
"The flames ranged from 10 feet to not even big enough to roast a hot dog, and it burned for about 30 to 45 minutes," said Curry.
The fire department was prepared to see 20foot flames that would burn up to three hours, Curry said. After all fumes were burnt the tank was repaired and is now functional.
