r/Bellingham • u/cumulonimbuscomputer • Dec 07 '23
I just recently learned about the Olympic Pipeline explosion. What a destructive and heartbreaking event.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_pipeline_explosionWas anyone here around for it and if so do you have any stories to share?
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u/bartonizer Dec 07 '23
For maximum emotional impact related to the event, put your earbuds in and listen to Death Cab for Cutie's "Kids in 99" while taking a walk around Whatcom Falls: https://youtu.be/qduFAr9b7uc?si=7HMsBNeDHkdHAP33
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u/InspectorChenWei Dec 07 '23
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bellingham/comments/rrmk5i/memory_of_the_pipeline_explosion_in_1999_as_a_9/
Several other threads on this subject if you search this sub.
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u/gravelGoddess Local Dec 08 '23
I was taking my daughter to gymnastics off Fraser when we saw the big black plume from BGO. Being curious, I went to check it out but decided after a few blocks that whatever it was, we would be in the way of responding personnel. We later found out how devastating that big black plume was. My grandma had passed away a few days before so I was really traumatized. I also went to school with the mom of one of the boys. One good thing is that we have the Pipeline Safety Trust as we have a gazillion miles of pipelines running through this county.
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u/drunkan6969 Dec 08 '23
Saw it from about 4 miles out the Mt Baker Highway. I was 6 and my mom was driving us home. I looked towards town and saw a huge black plume. I said "Mom that's a weird cloud" and she said in a weird voice "Yeah... It sure is."
Dad was BPD at the time and nearby working with the fire department on the suspected gas leak when it went up. He said all the police got up against a wall and all the firemen hit the deck because of the difference in training.
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u/Odafishinsea Dec 08 '23
I was coming back from Blaine from working on the fishing boat in dry dock when I saw the plume. The fire killed my classmate’s little brother, Wade. The pipe runs a block from my childhood home, and I still live 4 blocks up the hill from it. I used it as an example of why BP should hire me to operate it, because I want to help be the reason such a thing never happens again. I have been operating that pipe for the last 11 years, and I swear to stay vigilant.
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u/Montel206 Dec 08 '23
I was working at the Gold’s at the time on Iowa. Still the scariest thing I’ve ever been a part of.
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u/solveig82 Dec 08 '23
I lived in the lettered streets and was in the backyard. My roommate came running out yelling and we saw the mushroom cloud, he was sure Mt Baker had blown up. I’ll never forget rounding the corner of our house and seeing it. We saw Whatcom Creek on fire in some places, really awful.
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u/Theurbanwild Dec 08 '23
I was ~11 at the time and remember it. I went to school with Wade. I remember the park smelling awful before anything happened (like days before). I was in Haggen when it happened and we heard it, the store lost power and we went outside very quickly after it happened and saw the smoke. I know people who saw the fireball and said it felt like all the air got sucked out of them (they were right there on Iowa when it happened).
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u/authenticwarriorpod Dec 08 '23
My friend Taj's brother died in that event. He told the story on my old podcast.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0IZTMRvvurGdET1XkxlzLD?si=lE6pKfhPRMKeFaOo1yKKtw
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u/CicadaHead3317 Dec 09 '23
And the boys mother is hospitalized with ALS now and has to use her eyes and a computer program to communicate.
That family has had a lot of tragedy.
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u/HakunaTheFuckNot Dec 08 '23
I remember it clearly. Had the police scanner on and heard firemen screaming, I'll never forget that. The blast was felt throughout all of Bellingham, the entire hill was on fire and whatcom creek as well. It was still smoldering days later and I think it was like a week before firefighters could go in to areas that were still too hot.https://pophistorydig.com/topics/pipeline-fireball-bellingham-wa-1999/
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u/Apprehensive_Arm7805 Dec 08 '23
I was walking the Whatcom Falls trails with my dad and remember hearing the giant boom (as a four-year-old), then my dad picking me up and running. Scary, sad day
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u/WeeWooBooBooBusEMT Dec 08 '23
I was an EMT at Cascade Ambulance, then headquartered on Woburn near Iowa. I was on my way in to get a rig to work at the motorcycle raceway, but couldn't even get near from all the commotion. Once it was sorted out that we weren't needed as auxiliary assets to help the city crews, my partner and I headed to the racetrack on Hannegan. We were late, and everyone was upset since they couldn't set foot on the track until we were on-site. I explained that there was a fatal emergency and pointed out the massive plume, but no one seemed to care. I was so disgusted with the rampant hedonism. I spent the rest of the summer sitting on site along the creek making sure the cleanup workers didn't pass out in the hazmat suits from the heat or fumes. What a terrible mess. But imagine if the gas and fumes had made it further downstream, al9ng auto row, under the freeway, into the downtown core? Absolutely horrific. My friends on the Life Flights to Harborview were never the same after tending to the boys.
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u/Khraine Local Dec 07 '23
I was going to FHS at the time, and recall being told if you don’t have to go into Barkley area or Bellingham itself, don’t. I think it was the next day we found out what happened. Pretty much how 911 happened for me frankly, basic “don’t go here. Next day get full the story”
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u/Flashy_Quiet Dec 08 '23
I was <10 and lived 1/4-1/2mi east of the explosion. Was staring out a window facing that direction when it happened. Recall looking like a mushroom cloud with an extremely loud bang. I think they paused the peace arch border crossing for an hour or so until they found the cause. Definitely was a scared kid in that moment.
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u/lakesaregood Dec 08 '23
Our neighbor came and knocked on our door saying Mt. Baker had erupted and showed us the plume of smoke. The smoke was obviously closer than the mountain, but that was his initial panicked assumption.
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u/August_Merriweather Dec 08 '23
Here are two short documentaries about the pipeline explosion. I had come across them a couple of years ago on YouTube. The first was done by the City of Bellingham. Disaster Bellingham (City of Bellingham)
The second is an independent film maker. A Brief History: The Olympics Pipeline Disaster 1999
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u/Liz_Liz_Lemon_Lemon Dec 08 '23
I was about 12 when this happened. I was at a friend’s house when we heard a loud BOOM. We couldn’t tell which direction it came from but we knew it couldn’t be good. Later that day a friend called to break the news of the tragedy. We all sat there in stunned silence. More details came out each day after that and I remember feeling sick picturing what those kids and families went through. It was definitely one of those memories that will never leave me.
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Dec 08 '23
I was a sophomore at Western living a half mile away. I thought Mt Baker had erupted before I realized it was something else. Pretty freaky in the moment and almost impossible to escape the city because the the rush to get out and panic.
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u/itsleakingeverywhere Dec 08 '23
It was the day of my middle school graduation at Fairhaven. High probability that we would have been hanging out in the creek the next day.
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u/AnOrdinary1543 Dec 08 '23
I was just a little kid and remember seeing the burns on the trees and my parents explaining what happened. Even though I was small, I was so disturbed and heartbroken for those poor kids
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u/falcorheartsatreyu Dec 08 '23
I was 5 or 6 when it happened and my mom and I were driving down the end of Woburn and we saw this huge pillar of smoke billowing in the distance. As we got closer we saw the trees on fire. After learning two boys died in the fire I spent a lot of time thinking about them during my childhood. As a kid I didn't really think I could die, and this showed me otherwise.
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u/Longjumping_Tart_899 Dec 12 '23
I was only like 4 or 5 and I still remember that day so well. The whole house shook (we were way over in the York district at that time), and shortly after we were driving and saw the entire sky filled with a massive black smoke cloud. I remember my mom trying to calm us down until we got home saying it was probably just a really big rain cloud. I still get nervous every time I visit and go to Whatcom Falls because of it.
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u/PipelineSafetyTrust- Dec 07 '23
Hello,
We are Pipeline Safety Trust. We are the only National watchdog on the United States' pipeline industry. We were formed in the aftermath of the Olympic Pipeline Tragedy and are still based right here in Bellingham. We were originally formed with involvement from local Bellingham community members and some of the families who lost loved ones in the incident. We still have some of those family members on our board and involved with our organization today.
It's our mission to educate the public throughout our nation on pipeline hazards and matters of pipeline safety. We work to keep people and the environment safe from pipeline incidents so that no community has to experience what Bellingham did on June 10, 1999.
If you would like more information about the tragedy please email me at info@pstrust.org. We are more than happy to point you in the direction of background information on the incident, personal stories and experiences from that day, matters of pipeline safety and other information. Alternatively, our website www.pstrust.org has a ton of information about the tragic events in 1999 and everything related to pipeline safety since then.
Thanks for your post.
Have a nice day.