319th Civil Engineer Squadron Brings the Heat

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Zachiah Roberson
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS AFB, N.D. --  The 319th Air Base Wing Civil Engineer Squadron Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning unit has been working around the clock to ensure base personnel have sufficient heating following a harsh cold snap and a natural gas pipeline burst in Canada.

The natural gas company Xcel Energy recently had an explosion at their main facility on Jan. 18, causing service disruptions to many of its consumers, including Grand Forks Air Force Base.

"Xcel Energy provides the base with energy around the clock, and in the past two years we haven't had to use the base's synthetic natural gas farm for more than a few hours at a time during winter," said 1st Lt. Joshua Dill, 319th Civil Engineer Squadron acting flight commander. "We have been using the gas farm on base continuously since the crisis at the energy plant, which is the longest I have ever seen it running since I've been here."

The 319th CES HVAC has worked full-day shifts on top of being called out after duty hours to assist with propane (synthetic natural gas) trucks coming onto the base to refill the base's supply, and are constantly having to check the gas farm for any problems or variations of maintainability of that area.

"It's been a long week or so, but I don't mind it at all," said Airman 1st Class Zachary Crabtree, 319th CES HVAC apprentice. "It's sort of fun to be out doing this stuff for the base."

Crabtree, along with the other members of the six-man response team, have racked up around 90 hours of additional duty time this winter, many of which were logged on the days leading up to and immediately following the Xcel Energy issue.

"The pumps need monitoring, and the trucks need to get on base with at least one of us present the whole time, so why not me, right?" said Crabtree. "I don't mind this workload at all; we have had about eight to twelve trucks come on base in the last few days, all of which were carrying about eleven to twelve thousand gallons of propane each!"

Tech Sgt. Kevin Murphey, 319th CES HVAC NCO-in-charge, praised the efforts of his team and reaffirmed their dedication to getting the mission accomplished.

"We have a good amount of our shop deployed right now, and are working at less than minimal manning, but that isn't stopping us from doing our job here on base," said Murphey. "The team is on constant alert to be at the gas farm for inspections and to assist in any way possible with the refilling of the tanks here."

After 11 days of energy conservation and equipment fixes, Xcel Energy is capable once again to begin supplying the base with energy, essentially ending this time of crisis on Jan. 29, 2014.

Though the situation has resolved, the 319th CES HVAC shop will continue to work when and wherever they are needed because the winter is not over and numerous cold weather-related issues may arise concerning base heating.

"Our guys did a great job at coming in on their afternoons, weekends and essentially anytime they were needed at the base's synthetic natural gas farm," said Dill. "They are the reason that everyone on base had heating when the Xcel explosion happened and the days after that."