Fired Employee Shuts Off Gas Supply to an Entire City

A recently fired employee of Trunkline Gas has been jailed on charges he turned off the natural gas supply to the entire city of Fairfield, Ill. The man faces local charges of burglary and interference with a public utility for allegedly breaking into a Trunkline Gas monitoring station north of Wayne City and closing a valve that halted the flow of gas to more than 2,700 Fairfield customers. By closing the valve, two high pressure lines that serve the city were shut down, the station said. The man could face more serious charges as federal agents have joined the investigation. Workers were able to restore the flow of gas to Fairfield in less than an hour, and no customers were affected by the early morning incident. The pressure had dropped from 240 psi to about 100 psi. If the line had lost all pressure, it would have taken over a week to repressurize the system and get pilot lights reignited, a spokesman said. Investigators said the man was fired from his job at Trunkline in late 2010 after more than 30 years on the job. Trunkline officials feared he would vandalize their facilities and had increased security at their major transmission station near Johnsonville over the past 2 months, the radio station reported. The heightened security included hiring back off-duty Wayne County sheriff’s deputies to provide surveillance at their main transmission headquarters during the overnight hours.