CENTRALIA, Mo. -- A cut pipeline and a mechanical malfunction sent natural gas surging into stove and furnace pilot lights at 120 times the normal rate Thursday, creating a blowtorch effect that started fires in at least 50 homes.
Shops were closed and schools were evacuated. They were reopened today.
City officials said at least six homes were destroyed by fires that sprouted around town at midday Thursday. At least 21 other homes received some type of damage, the state fire marshal reported.
'It looked very normal' at dawn, radio reporter Ron Block said of the town square. 'It looks like nothing had happened except for extra activity around City Hall. Businesses were open -- the ones that weren't damaged -- and schools opened.'
The surge of gas -- which forced torch-like flames to spit from furnace and gas range pilot lights -- was caused by a cut pipeline and a mechanical malfunction that sent the extra pressure through the domestic gas lines to about 300 homes. At least 50 small fires were reported at one time.
No deaths were reported, but two women were slightly burned while putting out fires in their homes Thursday and two other people -- one a firefighter -- were treated for smoke inhalation.
'It could have been a lot worse than it was,' said the Rev. Edwin Burris, who allowed his First Baptist Church to be used as a shelter for those chased from their homes. 'There were fires everywhere, but most were immediately contained.'
Smoke was visible for 15 miles.
Most of the displaced stayed with family or friends but a handful of people spent the night in the church, a spokeswoman said late Thursday.
Virgina Green, 79, was one of the burn victims.
'My furnace started making a big noise,' she said. 'I got down on my knees and it was all red.'
After running outside to warn her husband, she returned to her kitchen.
'My stove was all afire,' Mrs. Green said. 'Flames were shooting out of the tops of the burners, up the side of the wall. It got my cabinets and all before I could put it out (with a blanket). But I was able to save our house.'
The problem started when a city employee cleaning a culvert with a backhoe accidentally cut through a three-quarter-inch underground gas pressure control line. A pressure regulator sensed the loss of all pressure and sent gas at 30 pounds per square inch through lines that normally handle 4 ounces per square inch.
Utility officials could not explain what equipment failed.
Mike Cleary, an information supervisor for the Missouri Power & Light Co., said he had never heard of a situation where too much pressure was delivered to customers.
'This was a very unusual situation,' Cleary said. 'We've had gas lines break and the gas escape causing the pressure to drop. But this was a very unusual situation.'
Cleary said late Thursday that the affected area had been 're-engerized,' and that crews were in the process of hooking of individual customers. The temperature dipped to freezing Thursday night, but most of the town had heat again before midnight.
MPL employees patroled the streets of Centralia with mechanical 'sniffers' to check for gas leaks.
School children were put on buses and evacuated during the height of the fires, but authorities said there was no panic. The Highway Patrol closed 13 entries into the town and Mayor Burton Knowles declared a curfew from dusk until dawn to prevent possible looting.
Centralia has about 3,800 people and is located about 25 miles north of Columbia, Mo.
