Suspect Pipe Seam In New York Steam Explosion Now Called An Unlikely Culprit

Tuesday, August 7th 2007, 7:54 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ A patched-up pipe seam that was seen as one of the early suspects in a steam pipe explosion in Manhattan last month was discovered undamaged inside the blast crater, a utility official said Tuesday.

The discover would appear to rule out a botched repair to a leaky pipe as the trigger for the July 18 blast.

The section of pipe that did rupture was about 10 feet away. Instrument readings also indicated no buildup of pressure inside the system before the blast, and a visual inspection of the site hours before the explosion found nothing amiss.

Taken together, those factors suggest that whatever caused the rupture was ``pretty spontaneous, and happened in a moment's time,'' said Bill Longhi, the senior vice president for operations at Consolidated Edison.

Just what the trigger was, however, remains unclear. Longhi, testifying before a city council committee, refused to offer theories.

Con Ed has hired an engineering firm specializing in analyzing structure failures, Lucius Pitkin Inc., to investigate the blast. The work is expected to take at least three months. State utility regulators are conducting a separate investigation.

The blast severely burned two people, blew out hundreds of windows and sprayed asbestos-tainted mud all over the street. Dozens were injured by falling debris, and one woman died of a heart attack while fleeing.