Two Lower Valley Energy employees were knocked off their feet Monday around 12:30 p.m. after a Sublette County dehydration plant exploded, bursting into flames.
“We’re very glad our guys are completely uninjured,” said Brian Tanabe, communications manager for Lower Valley Energy. “This was an accident that we did not foresee coming.”
A pipe came ajar and broke loose, causing it to spew natural gas fumes, Tanabe said.
The workers heard the interruption and were walking toward the dehydration building to shut down the system just before the explosion, he said.
“That was the scary part,” Tanabe said. “They were on their way to this building. They were going to troubleshoot.”
Valves were closed and the fire was extinguished without the help of firefighters, Sublette County Emergency Management Coordinator Jim Mitchell said, though fire officials were there on standby. The flames were out within about 20 minutes, they said. Highway 191 just north of Daniel was shut down as a precaution.
No Lower Valley Energy customers experienced interruptions as a result of the explosion, Tanabe said.
“We went around the exploded facility and bypassed it,” he said.
Lower Valley Energy’s Jackson natural gas reserve is enough for two days but they didn’t have to use any of that, Tanabe said.
“It’s an emergency maneuver but because of the quality of gas we were receiving it actually was very clean and it did not need the dehydration process,” he said.
The severity of the damage at the site is unknown.
“All the sides were blown away,” Tanabe told the News&Guide. “Oddly enough the roof was still standing. The electric stuff was fried but the metal piping and the dehydration unit is still standing.”
The two Lower Valley gas technicians showed up for work Tuesday morning, Tanabe said.
“They were very lucky,” Mitchell said.