​At 3:20am, on June 28, 1982, a natural has explosion demolished a house, killed five persons, and critically injured one person at 827 West 18th Street in Portales, NM; the critically injured person died later at a burn treatment center. The gas service line to the house had been damaged 37 days earlier when a contractor's backhoe pulled up the line during conduit excavation work for the local local telephone comany. At the same time the line was pulled out at the excavation site, the line was pulled out of a compression coupling buried under the street. The pullout at the excavation site was repaired, but the pullout under the street was not repaired until after this accident because the gas company did not detect it when it happened.

​We determined that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the gas company to carefuly inspect a damaged service line and to apply a pressure test from the gas main to the meter once the line was reconnected.

Contributing to the accdent was the failure of the gas company to provide complete information to the contractor regarding the location of service lines due to incomplete and dated information on it;s ad records of its distrution facitilies. 

​​​​​As a result of this investigation, we made​ the following safety recommendations:

To the Research and Special Programs Administration of the US Department of Transportation: Discontinue its planned withdrawal of rulemaking in Docket PS-61 and expedite rulemaking to require pipeline operators to maintain maps and records necessary for the safe operation of their systems (P-83-01)

To the Gas Company of New Mexico:

• Include accurate information on its system maps to identify the existence and location of all service lines. (P-83-02)
  
• Revise its constuction, mainenance, and emergency procedures and its training program, and develop explicit instructions for its employees to follow when repairing damaged gas facilities. Particular emphasis should be placed on investigating and testing for unseen pipe separation. (P-83-03)
  

To the American Gas Association, the National L.L. Gas Association, and the American Public Gas Association: Notify its member companies of the circumstances of the accident in Portales, New Mexico, and urge them to include accurate information on their system maps sufficient to identify existence and location of all their pipeline facities, and to emphasize to their employees the importance of of checking for unseen damage where their facilities have been damaged by excavation operations. (P-83-4)

To the America Public Works Association: Notify its members of the circumstances of the accident in Portales, NM on June 28, 1982, and urge them to cooperate with the pipeline operator in determining the extent of damage when pipeline facillities have been damaged.