One critically injured in gas explosion

By Gale Rose
The Pratt Tribune
Thu Jun 18, 2009



By Gale Rose
Pratt Fire Fighters spray down fire damaged items following a gas explosion at Central Kansas Crude that left employee Zack Touchstone, 19, badly burned and in critical condition. Drip gas was being vented from a truck inside the building when an unknown source ignited the vapors. The explosion created a fire that lasted a couple of seconds. The west wall was destroyed and east wall was buckled.

Two Pratt men were injured, one critically, when a gas explosion blew out a wall at Central Kansas Crude at the Pratt Industrial Airport Wednesday afternoon.

In critical condition at Via Christi St. Francis Burn Unit is 19-year-old Zack Touchstone, son of Central Kansas Crude owner Charles Touchstone.

Also injured in the explosion was shop foreman Larry Coss who was standing just outside the building by a door when the explosion occurred. Touchstone was the only one inside the building at the time of the explosion.

Coss turned to run from the building but the force of the blast and fire overtook him and knocked him to the pavement, Coss said.

The explosion did not create a loud boom but more of a whoosh sound.

Coss got up and ran away from the building then looked back to see what was happening but the explosion and fire was already over.

The fire singed his beard, caused first-degree burns on his arm and he suffered an injury to his leg when he was knocked to the pavement. He refused to be transported to the hospital.

Touchstone was able to walk out of the building but his clothes were on fire. Coss and employees of Pioneer Tank and Steel, located next door, brought fire extinguishers and put out Touchstone's burning clothes, said Pratt Assistant Fire Chief George Stevens.

Touchstone suffered second and third degree burns to his face and body. Pratt County EMS ambulance immediately transported him to Pratt Regional Medical Center where a LifeTeam helicopter quickly flew him to the burn unit at Via Christi St. Francis campus in Wichita where he remains in critical condition.

The accident occurred approximately 2:45 p.m. when the employees were bleeding drip gas from a semi tanker inside the building, Stevens said.

The gas was being removed so a pump on the truck could be repaired. Other trucks had been bled off in a similar fashion without a problem, Coss said.

Two big garage doors were open on the west side of the building for ventilation and two big fans inside the building were used to keep the gas from accumulating.

"Thank God the vapors were not built up or it (explosion) would have put the building in the next county," Stevens said.

The drip gas was being bled directly onto the floor when something caused the accumulated gas to ignite in what Stevens called a vapor flashover. The exact cause of the explosion is still unknown.

Flames engulfed the interior of the building for a brief period.

"It only lasted one or two seconds then the fire was gone," Stevens said.

The force of the explosion blew out the west wall creating an enormous hole in the building. It knocked the big roll down doors off their hinges and they hung at uneven angles from the brackets. The east wall of the building was buckled outward and the roof pushed up from the force of the blast. Interior metal structural beams were twisted and bent, Stevens said.

Almost nothing in the building suffered any fire damage because it was gone so quickly. The truck looked like it could be driven out of the building. Two other trucks, one inside the building and one parked with just the cab in the building suffered very little damage.

Investigator Dave Higday from the Kansas State Fire Marshall's office examined the building and will try to interview Touchstone Thursday, Stevens said.

Higday determined the explosion was due to an unknown ignition source that ignited the accumulation of drip gas vapors from the truck, said Pratt Fire Chief David Kramer.

The vapors are highly flammable and explosive. Although the exact cause of the ignition is unknown, the speculation is that the ignition source may be from one of two floor ventilation fans working in close proximity to the bleeding process but that is just speculation, Kramer said.

A LifeTeam helicopter from Wichita was dispatched immediately after the explosion. Although it was supposed to land at Pratt Regional Medical Center, it arrived at the airport to take on fuel before going to the hospital and transporting Touchstone.

Two ambulances, two Pratt fire trucks, Pratt Police, Pratt firefighters, Iuka firefighters and Pratt County Rescue all responded to the accident. The airport is part of the city of Pratt so city units responded to the call.