HOUSTON — Schools and businesses were forced to shelter in place while homes were evacuated and roads were closed Monday due to a pipeline fire in the Deer Park area. Thousands of customers were also left without power.
The company responsible for the pipeline is Energy Transfer, according to Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton Jr. A statement from the city said the chemical burning is a Y-grade liquid natural gas.
The company released 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.”
What is Energy Transfer?
The company’s website says it has “one of America’s largest energy portfolios,” with 44 assets in the U.S. and offices in Beijing and Panama City, Panama.
Energy Transfer’s operations include “transportation, storage and terminalling for natural gas, crude oil, NGLs, refined products and liquid natural gas.”
The company began in East Texas in 1996. Its headquarters is in Dallas, the company’s website says. Kelcy L. Warren serves as its executive chairman and chairman of the board of directors and Marshall Mackie McCrea and Thomas E. Long serve as co-chief executive officers.
What’s burning in Deer Park?
Mouton said in a news conference a liquid natural gas was burning in the pipeline fire.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, natural gas is a relatively clean-burning fossil fuel that is mainly methane – a strong greenhouse gas.
According to the City of La Porte, the fire started just before 10 a.m. at Spencer Highway near East Boulevard near a Walmart and H-E-B.
Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said the burning pipeline runs along the city limits between Deer Park and La Porte.
KHOU 11 Investigates reporter Jeremy Rogalski said there are a series of pipelines that run on an easement in the area where the fire is. Each pipeline has a different hazardous material marker on it. They include petroleum, methanol, dry gas as well as ethane.
Mouton said the biggest risk was the constant heat being generated from the fire.