Cause of Pierce Transit CNG Explosion Still Under Investigation

through the Pierce Transit CNG bus-fueling facility in Lakewood, the agency is still waiting to find out precisely what caused it.

Jessyn Farrell, spokeswoman for the public-transportation agency, said the Washington State Transit Insurance Pool, Pierce Transit’s self-funded insurance provider, hired a compressed natural gas facility expert to investigate the cause of the Feb. 28 incident. The consultant is still analyzing test results, she said.

Farrell said the agency still does not have a cost estimate for the damages.

“That, in part, is because we’re still operating under this emergency,” she said. “We have both physical damage to the property, plus the cost of driving the buses to Sea-Tac (for refueling).”

Farrell said she would not want to speculate on the cost.

Pierce County Fire District 3 officials investigated the incident and determined early on that arson and other foul-play were not involved.

“It’s looking very much like it’s a design or construction thing, or possibly something related to the building itself,” Farrell said. “It’s a system issue and that’s what really trying to get good with.”

The at 3701 96th Street SW, Lakewood, destroyed three of the five fueling bays and took two others offline.

The blast occurred several hours after Pierce Transit’s Board of Commissioners because of the agency’s $51 million budget shortfall.

While the board did not characterize their Feb. 28 action as pending layoffs, Farrell said two weeks ago the proposed budget cuts ultimately mean about 200 employees will likely lose their jobs later this year. That is on top of two other rounds of layoffs in the last 18 months.

Farrell said it was coincidence the explosion happened immediately following the board’s Feb. 28 decision. She emphasized that people should not draw hasty conclusions based on the proximity of the two events.

“The fire marshal did due diligence,” she said, “and told us it wasn’t arson or foul-play.”

Nor has disciplinary action been taken against any Pierce Transit employees regarding the explosion, she added.

“The agency is satisfied with the conclusion of the fire marshal that the cause is not due to foul play, terrorism or other criminal activities,” Farrell said. “OSHA looked at how employees interface with the facility.  So far, there’s no indication we did anything wrong.”

Rod Pearce, assistant fire marshal for Pierce County Fire District 3, said he knew early on about the impending layoffs.

“When we walk up to a scene, we try not to pre-judge,” he said. “You can’t go into a fire (investigation) thinking that because there’s layoffs, someone’s doing it. We follow the facts.  If the facts lead you to that point, that’s where you go with it.

“From our standpoint it did not appear to be arson.”

Pearce referred other questions to Battalion Chief Michael Dobbs, the incident’s lead investigator, who was not immediately available for comment.

Farrell said Pierce Transit will not rebuild its fueling station until it knows definitively what happened.

“We obviously don’t want a repeat,” she said. “Even so, we’re beginning advanced planning to rebuild the site in two phases. Some of the existing infrastructure appears salvageable, so we should have some refueling capability back on site by early fall.”

Farrell said the investigation has taken months because it is being done in stages.  The independent consultant conducted an on-site review, followed by off-site analysis.

“It’s a complex system,” Farrell explained. “It’s all CNG piping and infrastructure and a lot of it is automated and computer-managed equipment. There’s a (software) programming element that needs to be analyzed.

“There’s also the question of whether it was a design issue. There’s just a whole host of elements that need to be looked at.”

Farrell likened the second part of the investigation to analyzing data from a recovered aircraft flight-recorder — commonly known as a “black box.”

“The best analogy is when you have an airplane crash, you have a little black box that you take away and do analysis off-site,” she said. “That’s what being done right now. We’re awaiting the final results of that.”

Meanwhile, Pierce Transit continues to send its buses to the CNG fueling facility at Sea-Tac Airport, where it takes about 20 minutes to fill each one.  That, coupled with round-trip driving time, already has forced a 23 percent reduction in bus service.

In contrast, the Lakewood facility — when fully operational — can fuel buses in five minutes.