Natural gas line explodes in north Texas after workers accidentally hit line; 1 person killed

1 worker dead in natural gas line blast in Texas

CLEBURNE, Texas — A large natural gas line in north Texas erupted Monday after utility workers accidentally hit the line, sending a massive fireball into the air and killing one worker, officials said.

Authorities found the missing worker’s body several hours after the explosion, once searchers could safely walk through the entire charred area. Authorities had hoped the missing man had left the scene on his own, like some of his colleagues who drove themselves to hospitals.

Brian Fine, Hood County’s emergency management coordinator, said the worker’s body was found some distance from the blast site. The man’s name was not immediately released.

The worker had been riding a truck drilling holes for utility poles when the line suddenly exploded, and other workers lost sight of him in the intense smoke, said Roger Harmon, Johnson County’s top elected official.

Near the blast site in rural Johnson County about 50 miles southwest of Dallas, officials later found the truck upside down and saw that the 2,000-pound drilling component had been ripped off the vehicle and hurled 250 feet away, said Cleburne Fire Chief Clint Ishmael.

At least seven of the other 13 workers who had been working at the site went to hospitals. Gary Marks, CEO of Glen Rose Medical Center, said two people were treated and released, and four others were in stable condition. One patient was taken to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. Spokeswoman Whitney Jodry did not have person’s condition.

Laura Harlin, a resident of nearby Granbury, said around the time of the blast she heard a “huge rumbling” that initially sounded like thunder and then like a tornado because it lasted so long.

“For about 10 minutes, it was so loud that it was like there was an 18-wheeler rumbling in your driveway,” she said.

The explosion caused confusion among officials in its immediate aftermath, with one city official initially saying three people had been killed.

Heat from the blast forced firefighters to stay about a half-mile away until the gas flow was shut off, and they were unable to douse the flames.

A control room at Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP, which owns the gas line, immediately identified a break in the line near Cleburne, said company spokesman Rick Rainey. The 36-inch line was equipped with valves that automatically shut down gas to that section of pipe, and the fire was out about two hours after the explosion.

The pipeline helps carry gas from West Texas across the state to utilities, distribution companies and commercial users on the eastern end of the state. Rainey said the company would work with customers to avoid any disruption to their service from the fire.

The injured workers were digging for a subcontractor hired by Waco-based Brazos Electric Cooperative, said Jack Snow, Johnson County’s emergency management coordinator. A message seeking comment from that company was not immediately returned. A spokesman for the subcontractor, Oklahoma-based C&H Power Line Construction Services, did not immediately respond to a call for comment either.

Johnson County’s emergency management coordinator, Jack Snow, said officials were investigating whether the gas line was marked. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were also at the scene.

The Texas natural gas blast followed one in West Virginia earlier Monday. Seven workers were burned when a drilling crew hit a pocket of methane gas, triggering an explosion in a rural area about 55 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.

Associated Press Writers Jeff Carlton, Schuyler Dixon and Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Mark Williams in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.