Natural gas facility explodes in Johnson County [Texas]

Natural gas facility explodes in Johnson County [Texas]

www.wfaa.com

JOHNSON COUNTY - A natural gas facility has exploded near Cleburne in Johnson County killing three, according to the Cleburne city manager.
At least 10 people are missing, he said.
A lot of people have been transported to hospital with burn injuries.
Massive flames and a huge plume of smoke can be seen in the area.
“About 2:40 p.m., we heard a loud explosion, rumbling, almost like a tornado. It shook our entire house. The plume of smoke that came out or steam is heading this way, the wind is blowing it right over our house. We are trying to work out whether it is something we need to evacuate or not," said Laura Harlin in Johnson County.
“We don’t really smell anything at this point. It sounds like faraway thunder at this point,” she added.
At 3:15 p.m., she said she could still hear the rumbling.
“There is a lot of onlooker traffic in the area,” said Hood County resident, Franklin Daniel.
People living in nearby Pecan Plantation have been told they don't need to evacuate.
A gas company is working to turn off a gas line.
Dirt devils can be seen in the area.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 7-6-2010 by xmaddness]

[edit on 7-6-2010 by xmaddness]

Here we go again. Another oil well is raging out of control in a fire. This is very reminiscent of the oil wells in Kuwait and will take a lot of effort to get it put out. This is breaking news just coming in. Rescue choppers are on the way. How many Oil wells are going to go up? Are our oil wells, refineries, and other oil related systems in America under attack?

Update 4:40pm EST
It is not an oil well, it is a Natural gas transportation pipeline. Reports are that a construction crew working in the area struck the pipeline. There are still people unaccounted for.

Firefighters are not able to even get close to this inferno due to the heat. Water is also not a viable means of extinguishing this type of fire. The fire department is currently scrambling to find the pipe owners in order to shut the pipeline down.

Six people have been injured. Reports coming in as I type.

Update 4:53pm EST
3 people have died, and up to 10 are missing. They are still looking to find out who owns the pipeline.

Update 5:22pm EST
Multiple burn victims have been transported to the hospital. There are up to eight fire teams surrounding the fire putting out nearby brush fires that have been sparked. The pipe is a 36 inch natural gas transportation pipeline. The gas company has been called and they are working to find and shut down the main valves. It is feared this may end up burning into the night as the remaining gas in the line burns off.

Update 5:38pm EST
Enterprise Products Partners has stated that they own the pipeline and they were alerted of a problem when there was a sudden drop in pressure reported at their main control center. They have stated that the pipeline is indeed segmented and that they have the ability to shut down that section of pipeline.

from Routers
"We have isolated that segment of line," [Enterprise spokesman] Rainey said. "Our crews have been dispatched to the scene. Basically that line is equipped with line breaks that allows us to shut in that segment in case of a sudden drop in pressure."

"There's no way we can try to put this fire out," Fire Chief Ishmael said.

Update 5:50pm EST
The pipeline has been shut down and the fire has self extinguished. The fire departments are now battling several wildfires that have been ignited in the area. The local area has been very dry as of late causing more headaches in the putting out of the brushfires as a result of the main pipeline fire.


Posting updates as they come.
www.wfaa.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 7-6-2010 by xmaddness]

Oh and we got to have that oil, it is life blood right?

[SNIP]!

Oil is an outdated means of energy.

*sigh* well, I wonder how this will go, thanks for the news.

Mod Edit: Profanity/Circumvention Of Censors – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 8-6-2010 by sanctum]

So then this is the second one in the last few days?

PALO PINTO, Texas — A rural area west of Fort Worth was shaken awake before dawn Friday when a natural gas well exploded near Possum Kingdom Lake, a sheriff's official said.

Source: www.foxnews.com...

reply to post by Quickfix


It's natural gas, not oil.

Both fossil fuels yes.

The same thing.. No..

I am convinced that there is something going on here, and that the US is currently under a covert ops attack against our fuel and oil supply. The staggering amount of oil and gas related explosions, accidents, and other such events are just happening to close in proximity to be passed off as coincidental.

The question now becomes who is doing this? Or possibly, how many other countries/entities are working together to do this?

It would be perfect timing in our weakened economic state to strike at us.

Kick us while we're down.

reply to post by DaMod


Fossil fuel is a misconception. It does not take so long to create fuel. You should look into potentially dry oil wells, you would be surprised, they refill after a few years not a few thousand years.

I was wrong about the oil, I think the difference is irrelevant since it is an outdated controlled commodity anyways.

Holy CRAP that's a big fire!

live video link here-
www.nbcdfw.com...

The fire department is currently scrambling to find the pipe owners in order to shut the pipeline down.

If that's true then they need to seriously overhaul their system. The owners of that pipeline should be on record with their information readily available to response teams. They should be able to be contacted and shut the supply off within minutes of something like this happening.

I hope they don't have any fatalities because of this, and that those injured are not injured too severely. Hopefully they can get it under control before any more people are hurt.

reply to post by Quickfix


Indeed it is an outdated commodity, however there are still too many industrial applications designed to use it rather than newer and cleaner sources of energy.

To be honest, minus the loss of life and environmental damages, I am happy to see events like these taking place. It will help push cleaner fuels.

Originally posted by chise61

The fire department is currently scrambling to find the pipe owners in order to shut the pipeline down.

If that's true then they need to seriously overhaul their system. The owners of that pipeline should be on record with their information readily available to response teams. They should be able to be contacted and shut the supply off within minutes of something like this happening.

I hope they don't have any fatalities because of this, and that those injured are not injured too severely. Hopefully they can get it under control before any more people are hurt.

I completely agree with you. How do the owners of this pipe not have systems in place to detect when the pipeline has leaked and have automatic shut off systems in place? Its pretty obvious that the people on the other end of the pipe are wondering why they are not getting any more fuel. It is simple engineering oversights like this that really piss me off.

Watching it live here:
www.wfaa.com...

There was a guy just on saying that this is an unregulated pipe, meaning it comes from wellhead to holding tanks.

Hopefully, this is not another, "we can't shut it off scenario"

They are now saying it's a 36" pipe. Snipped some pics from the livefeed.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4f9e5dfe2b4a.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5b5b7cb02d85.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 7-6-2010 by OurskiesRpoisoned]

You can see some spectacular pictures here.

www.wfaa.com...

Maybe we can see that underground nuclear bomb solution like in the youtube video.

reply to post by xmaddness

I agree, there have been a series of very suspicious events occurring around our oil refineries, natural gas plants, oil rigs, etc over the past several years ... especially those down in Texas. Several years ago, a group of men were spotted taking pictures and making drawings of oil refineries in the Houston area. Several weeks later, a security guard was shot and seriously wounded by intruders at one of the refineries. Of course, the FBI denied that anything was afoot and that it was "harmless".

Someone is targeting our energy infrastructure and they need to be identified and stopped ASAP.

They just said on my local fox 4 news that it was an electrical crew, drilling. They hit the pipe which caused the explosion.


3 dead and 10 missing have been reported, though I have heard other sources say that only 6 were missing though....


Truly sad.

Originally posted by OurskiesRpoisoned
Watching it live here:
www.wfaa.com...

There was a guy just on saying that this is an unregulated pipe, meaning it comes from wellhead to holding tanks.

Hopefully, this is not another, "we can't shut it off scenario"

They are now saying it's a 36" pipe. Snipped some pics from the livefeed.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4f9e5dfe2b4a.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5b5b7cb02d85.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 7-6-2010 by OurskiesRpoisoned]

I just took a screen shot of the same image you just posted (1st one)....were you having the same thought? Does that not look like pieces of a pulley sytem like you might see at a well/drilling site????

I agree that there is just too much of this going on lately...at least enough to make me stop and seriously think about it all. Are the corks blowing, so to speak???

Originally posted by mistafaz
Maybe we can see that underground nuclear bomb solution like in the youtube video.

haha, that was the first thought that came to me when I saw this on the news

Apparently they are working on getting the gas flow cut off to the pipe though.

I am here in Dallas and will report back if I hear anything exciting/new on the issue.

[edit on 7-6-2010 by gimme_some_truth]

reply to post by gimme_some_truth


Okay, so you just confirmed that at least someone has said that there was drilling going on at the site.

My question is.....why in the WORLD would an electrical team be drilling? And is it not common practice that before any kind of construction is done, permits are obtained in order to ensure that nothing is hit? That explanation doesn't make ANY kind of sense.

reply to post by westcoast


Well, if you look at the area, you can see where the line is buried. For these guys to be drilling even close to this is just completely insane. And of course, locates would have been done. I took another screenshot that I thought was interesting.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6f8570faab4f.jpg[/atsimg]

Is this a substation? Maybe. Either some very sloppy drilling, or some very bad locating.