On February 1, 2005 arounf 0633 hours South Whitehall Township (Lehigh County, Pennsylvania) firefighters were dispatched to an explosion of a gas line pump station.
Initial units on the scene encountered a large volume of fire at the source with a noticeable smoke column covering the northeast area of Lehigh County and the western end of Allentown City.
EPA and PEMA were quickly summoned by Incident Commander, Chief Dennis Smith of the Greenawalds Fire Dept. Orders were issued immediately to evacuate all residents of the immediate area.
It was obvious from the outset that attempting to extinguish the fire would be futile and the decision was made to take a defensive posture until notified otherwise. Mobile Pipeline officials recommend maintaining a minimum 100 yard safety zone from the base of the fire. All fire units were then repositioned accordingly.
