SUV crash sparks La Porte pipeline fire that burned for hours, prompting evacuations in Houston suburbs
THE DOOR, Texas — An SUV drove through a fence and hit a gas pipeline valve Monday morning, creating a massive plume of flames that damaged homes, melted vehicles and prompted the evacuation of 100 homes, authorities said.
The fire was expected to continue to rage into early Tuesday morning, but flow to the ruptured pipe was cut off and the fire extinguished itself, the city of Deer Park said in a statement Monday evening.
Video footage from our sister station KTRK showed a park near the fire was damaged and firefighters were pouring water on homes near the fire.
“No air monitoring issues have been reported at this time,” and Harris County hazardous materials officials will investigate once the flames have subsided, the statement said.
The 20-inch pipeline caught fire shortly before 10 a.m. Monday in La Porte, Texas, about 25 miles southeast of Houston, authorities in La Porte and nearby Deer Park said.
Preliminary reports suggest it was not “terrorist activity,” Deer Park officials said.
Deborah Gamel, 69, was in her home with her husband Carl, 63, just across the street from the playground next to the pipeline when the fire broke out. Within minutes of the fire starting, “the heat inside the house was so intense it was like being in an oven,” Gamel said.
By the time Carl managed to get out of their vehicle, their garage door had melted, as had the tailgate and taillights of his truck, she said. He managed to circle their backyard to get his wife and drive them to safety.
According to Jamie Galloway, emergency services director for the city of Deer Park, about 100 homes within a half-mile radius are affected by the pipeline fire.
Galloway estimated that four or five homes were damaged by radiant heat and that access to about 100 homes was cut off due to their proximity to the flames. Families living in those homes have been evacuated, he added.
Video footage from our sister station KTRK showed a park near the fire was damaged and firefighters were pouring water on homes near the fire.
Firefighters are monitoring the blaze and doing what they can to prevent the fire from spreading to other homes, Galloway said. Four first responders, all believed to be firefighters, suffered heat-related injuries and were treated at the scene, he said.
The pipeline carrying liquid natural gas is owned by Energy Transfer, Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton told reporters Monday.
For hours, dozens of firefighters hosed down surrounding homes and parkland that caught fire. Authorities said the pipeline had been isolated but the fire “would take some time to extinguish,” Mouton said.
Energy Transfer, in a statement to CNN, said there was an incident at one of its valve stations.
“The line has been isolated so that the residual product can burn safely. We do not yet have a timetable on how long this process will take, but we are working closely with local authorities,” the company said.
In addition to the evacuations, the fire caused power outages and closures in the area, Deer Park Deputy Police Chief Frank Hart said.
CenterPoint Energy, a Houston-based utility, reported several power outages in the area Monday morning. The company said it was monitoring the incident, which it said was “not related to the company’s natural gas operations or equipment.”
“When it is safe to do so, our electric crews will travel to the area to assess the damage to our transmission and distribution power lines, poles and equipment and begin restoring service to affected customers as safely and quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement to CNN.
Some area schools, including San Jacinto College’s central campus, issued a stay-at-home order due to the fire and later canceled classes and activities.
Geselle Melina Guerra, a 25-year-old woman who lives in a mobile home in the evacuation zone, told The Associated Press she was eating breakfast when she heard the explosion.
“All of a sudden we heard a loud bang and then I saw something bright, like orange, coming from our back door that’s outside,” Guerra said.
“I was panicking, pacing around the living room, not really knowing what to do or what was going on. I thought maybe it was a plane that had crashed near our house,” Guerra added.
(CNN Wire) (& 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner company. All rights reserved.)
