HUTCHINSON, Kan. – Tuesday marks the 16th anniversary of the gas explosions that rocked the downtown area of Hutchinson destroying two businesses and the next blowing up a mobile home that killed two people.
It started on Jan. 17, 2001 in the Décor Wedding and Party Supplies store with the explosion from natural gas and then spread to the Woody’s furniture store next door.
The next day, an explosion blew up a mobile home in the Big Chief Mobile Home Park killing two people.
The explosions resulted from natural gas leaking from a salt cavern at the Yaggy gas storage field seven miles northwest of Hutchinson. That gas eventually erupted from old brine wells beneath the city, causing the blasts and a number of gas geysers on the cities east side.
That also forced residents on the east side of Hutchinson from their homes until the city and investigators could determine that it was safe to go home.
The U.S. Senate last year approved the Safe Pipes Act, containing language to improve the safety and regulation of underground natural gas storage facilities based on what happened in Hutchinson.