(17 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deer Park, Texas – 17 September 2024
1. Various of pipeline fires continue to burn near Spencer Highway on Tuesday.
++PARTLY COVERED++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dennys Awarez, eyewitness:
“Sometime around ten, we heard like an explosion. We went outside to find a car that was going to work on, and then you see the big flame and the black smoke going up in the air.”
3. Mid of pipeline fire burning; firefighters are seen in the distant right.
++PARTLY COVERED+
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dennys Awarez, eyewitness:
“It’s scary, you know, all the poor people losing their house, everything, on fire, the Walmart. You know, the streets are closed. So I kind of feel scared for them, hopefully they’re you know. Okay.”
5. Mid of powerlines with fire burning in the distance.
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Yanneli Ocampo, eyewitness:
“Just wondering why it keeps happening. Why? Why? There’s so many explosions going on.”
7. Various of pipeline fires continue to burn near Spencer Highway
++PARTLY COVERED++
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jesus Gutierrez, eyewitness:
“Yesterday, actually, when we left, I felt like a little bit like lightheaded, dizzy from getting this from the chemicals or I don’t know if it was because of panicking, but coming back to school when the fire is still on, I don’t feel safe at all.”
9. Mid of sign that reads "warning dry gas pipeline."
10. Mid of pipeline fires continue to burn.
STORYLINE:
A flame that towered over a southeast Houston suburb subsided Tuesday but was still burning following a pipeline explosion that happened when a vehicle drove through a fence along a parking lot and struck an above-ground valve, officials said.
“Progress has been made as first responder crews worked through the night. The fire is significantly smaller,” according to a statement from Deer Park. The city said Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based owner of the pipeline, expects the fire to burn itself out later Tuesday.
City officials said police and FBI agents found no preliminary evidence to suggest a coordinated or terrorist attack, and said it “appears to be an isolated incident," but they haven’t offered any details on how they came to that conclusion.
Investigators were trying to learn more about the driver of the sport utility vehicle. The car was incinerated by the explosion, which scorched the ground across a wide radius, severed nearby power transmission lines, melted playground equipment and ignited nearby homes. Over 24 hours after the explosion, the driver still had not been publicly identified.
The valve, which appears to have been protected by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, is located within a long grassy corridor where high-voltage power lines run. Below the ground run several pipelines. On one side of the corridor is a neighborhood of homes; on the other is a Walmart. Officials say the driver went through a fence alongside the Walmart parking lot and across the grassy right-of-way before striking the valve.
Officials have not given any information on the condition of the driver. Deer Park spokesperson Kaitlyn Bluejacket said four people were injured, but provided no details about the seriousness of the injuries. Authorities said one firefighter sustained minor injuries.
The roaring fire shot orange flame and then black smoke hundreds of feet into the air, prompting authorities to evacuate nearly 1,000 homes and order people in nearby schools to shelter in place. By Tuesday, the City of La Porte said it slightly reduced the evacuation area south of the fire, but did not say how many people were affected.
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