Kentucky pipeline blast leaves 1 dead, 5 injured, levels part of trailer park
JUNCTION CITY, Kentucky — A regional gas pipeline ruptured early Thursday in Kentucky, causing a massive explosion that killed one person, sent five others to hospital, destroyed railroad tracks and forced the evacuation of a nearby mobile home park, authorities said.
Some homes were consumed by the blaze when firefighters extinguished the flames hours later, Lincoln County Emergency Management director Don Gilliam said.
“The part of the area that has been compromised, there’s just nothing left,” Gilliam said when asked whether residents might return to their trailer homes. “The residences that are still standing or damaged will be accessible. There doesn’t really look like there’s any in-between back there. They’re either destroyed or they’re still standing.”
Kentucky State Police spokesman Robert Purdy said at least five homes were completely destroyed and structures within 457 metres had damage. He said a handful of people who were missing after the blast have now been accounted for.
The 76-centimetre-wide pipeline moves natural gas under such high pressure that the flames reached about 90 metres in the air and could be seen throughout the county, he said.
The explosion at 1 a.m. was so huge that it showed up on radar, according to a tweet from WKYT-TV meteorologist Chris Bailey.
It took hours for firefighters to douse the flames, with trucks repeatedly refilling their tanks and returning to the scene.
Purdy said the fire burned so hot that it left the landscape barren, burning trees and grass and leaving only red dirt, rocks and gravel.
Residents said they were awakened by the initial blast.
Naomi Hayes said she lives within a mile of the scene and felt her home shake, then saw light outside the window.
“It was so bright that it was like daylight outside, just with an orange tint,” she said.
Purdy said the woman who died was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Frankfort to determine her cause of death. Purdy said it appears she might have left her home due to the fire and was overtaken by the heat.
The rupture involved the Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline, which is owned and operated by Enbridge and stretches several thousand kilometres from the Mexican border in Texas to New York City. Enbridge spokesman Jim McGuffey said two other nearby gas lines don’t appear to be affected, but will be inspected. He said there’s no indication of what might have caused the explosion.