A massive pipeline explosion in the Houston area was still burning Tuesday morning.
Nearly 1,000 homes were evacuated early Monday in Deer Park after a vehicle drove through a fence and struck an above-ground valve connected to the natural gas pipeline, the Associated Press reported. Witnesses said it sounded “like a bomb went off.”
Witnesses told ABC13 that the SUV went airborne after hitting the pipeline. Sherry Richard told reporters that the SUV drove through some brush, then a fence near a Walmart parking lot, before accelerating towards the pipeline. “It hits it, and the car goes up in the air and back down, and once it hits the ground, it’s a boom, and then there is fire everywhere,” Richard said.
Police did not comment on the condition of the driver, whose car was reportedly “incinerated” by the fire. Four people were injured by the end of the day on Monday, including a firefighter, Deer Park spokesperson Kaitlyn Bluejacket said.
The explosion shot flames high into the sky Monday, even melting the siding of nearby homes. “A lot of the house structures that are adjacent to that are still catching on fire even though we’re putting a lot of water on them,” Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton Jr. said at an afternoon press conference.
While there were initial concerns that the explosion might be related to terrorism, witnesses said the driver appeared to be an elderly woman wearing glasses, Chron.com, reported.
Meanwhile crews continued to get the fire under control Tuesday morning; a KHOU reporter posted on X that homes and businesses in the area were without power.
Deer Park officials posted on X Tuesday that the burnoff — which experts said was the safest way to manage the environmental damage — would continue until “later today.”
