LA PORTE, Texas (KTRK) — Authorities have been responding since 10 a.m. Monday to a pipeline explosion near Spencer Highway and Summerton that started in Deer Park and spread to La Porte.
The explosion started in Deer Park and then spread south under Spencer Highway to La Porte, as the highway separates Deer Park to the north and La Porte to the south.
Officials with the City of La Porte said the fire department responded to the fire in the 8700 block of Spencer Highway at about 9:55 a.m. Multiple agencies are responding to the scene, including the Deer Park Office of Emergency Management, which is handling the west side of the fire, and La Porte, which is handling the east side.
Energy Transfer, the company that owns the pipeline, said liquid natural gas is burning, and it will be hours before the fire burns off.
Energy Transfer sent Eyewitness News the following statement:
“We experienced an incident this morning in La Porte, Texas, at a valve station along Spencer Highway for a 20″ natural gas liquids line that resulted in a fire. There are no reports of injuries at this time. The LaPorte Fire Department is on the scene and has evacuated all homes and businesses within a half mile of the incident site. The line has been isolated so that the residual product in the line can safely burn itself out. We have no timeline at this point on how long that process will take, but we are working closely with local authorities. We are aware of early reports indicating that an unknown passenger car entered our right-of-way and struck the value location. Air monitoring equipment is in the process of being set up in the area. We will continue to release details as they become available.”
SEE MORE: What are natural gas liquids? La Porte identifies ‘Y Grade NGL’ as chemical burning in pipeline
Aerial views show firefighters spraying homes right behind the fire with water. The front of the houses appeared to have smoke and fire damage.
A Deer Park official told ABC13’s Daniela Hurtado that four people were injured from the event, including a firefighter for minor injuries. The four also includes two hospitalizations and two heat-related injuries.
The flames grew at one point, creating smaller grass fires that crews are working to keep under control. City officials said the impact zone is about 1/2 mile from the fire itself.
During a press conference, Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton said the fire is in a contained area, but local authorities have implemented evacuations and shelter-in-place orders for nearby areas, including HEB, Walmart, Heritage Elementary, College Park Elementary, James H. Baker, San Jacinto College.
Energy Transfer said in part of a public statement that an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire.
In the wake of the event, the company set up a help one for anyone displaced and/or impacted by the fire at 855-430-4491.
At one point, CenterPoint’s outage map showed just about 7,000 customers without power in the Deer Park area.
The numbers are fluid.
The adjacent property is owned by Coastal Industrial Water Authority. However, the company’s executive director told Eyewitness News that “the fire is not associated with CWA.”
As for air monitoring, Harris County Precinct 2 shared that it plans to display live readings soon on its dashboard. When the measurements are taken, they will populate the map using the aforementioned link.
Keep in mind that the readings you will see are meant to be a comparison based on historical “base readings.” They are not a determination of how good or bad the air quality is, but rather a way to see spikes in the hourly readings, Harris County Pollution Control said.
At least two homes appeared to be burned near a massive pipeline fire in the La Porte/Deer Park area, SkyEye video shows.
According to Harris County Property Records, the fire is happening on or right near a CenterPoint-owned property.
“CenterPoint Energy is monitoring the incident on Spencer Highway in LaPorte, which is unrelated to the company’s natural gas operations or equipment. We are also cooperating with first responders. Putting safety first, the public should avoid this area until further notice from local emergency officials. When it is safe to do so, our electric crews will go into the area to assess the damage to our transmission and distribution power lines, poles and equipment and begin restoring service to impacted customers as safely and quickly as possible,” CenterPoint told ABC13 in a statement.
Road closures
Spencer Highway is closed in both eastbound and westbound directions.
East Boulevard is currently closed southbound toward Spencer Highway. The area surrounding Walmart and H-E-B is currently blocked off to traffic. You’re asked to avoid the area and reroute.
Hours after a pipeline fire broke out, the company that owns the infrastructure sent a statement saying it doesn’t know how long until the fire’s out.
Evacuations and shelter in place
An evacuation has been ordered between Spencer Highway and Fairmont Parkway, between Luella and Canada, in the Brookglen neighborhood of La Porte. The evacuations and shelter-in-place orders also apply to nearby areas, including HEB, Walmart, Heritage Elementary, College Park Elementary, James H. Baker, and San Jacinto College.
Avoid the area and follow law enforcement directions.
Authorities said about 50 homes have been evacuated, and about five homes are being watered down.
An evacuation and cooling center has opened at the East Harris County Activity Center, 7340 Spencer Highway, in Pasadena, for anyone affected by the fire.
A reunification center has also opened at the La Porte Recreation and Fitness Center on Broadway.
The San Jacinto College Central Campus in La Porte will remain closed for the rest of the day, the college said in an update at about 12:35 p.m. All classes and activities are canceled after the college was initially put under a shelter in place.
Central Campus is expected to resume normal classes and activities on Tuesday.
Students and staff at Heritage Elementary School and College Park Elementary School are also under a shelter in place in La Porte ISD.
La Porte ISD said students who live in affected neighborhoods where buses can’t access due to road closures have been contacted by the districts, and those parents need to arrange pick-up for their children.
“While our schools are continuing to operate normally, students from several of our campuses live in the area affected by the evacuation. Therefore, we are unable to transport those children home by bus. The district is in the process of contacting parents who will need to arrange for pickup of their students (at their home campus),” La Porte ISD said.
13 Investigates contacted the Railroad Commission of Texas, which released this statement:
“Railroad Commission of Texas pipeline safety inspectors are investigating the fire that occurred at an Energy Transfer natural gas liquid pipeline in La Porte Monday morning. Energy Transfer has shut down the portion of the pipeline that caught fire. RRC inspectors will work with state and local emergency responders at the scene. The fire occurred in a pipeline corridor, and the RRC is notifying other pipeline operators in the corridor of the incident and getting information on measures they are taking to ensure the safety of their systems.”
ABC13 has several crews at the scene, along with SkyEye, bringing you continuous live coverage in the video player above.
13 INVESTIGATES: Energy Transfer waits hours before providing statement on pipeline fire
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