A gas pipeline in Oklahoma ruptured near the Texas border on Tuesday – creating a powerful explosion of fire that shot 500 feet into the sky.
The incredible footage shows a hot orange and white fireball climbing about half the length of the Eiffel Tower into the night sky along the Oklahoma panhandle.
The fire erupted from the Phillips 66 natural gas pipeline around 9:15 p.m. in Elmwood, on the Oklahoma side of the border, the company said in a statement.
While it’s clear the pipeline is suffering, officials say they’re still working to uncover the cause.
“There were no injuries associated with the incident and there was no health threat to neighboring residences,” Phillips 66 said.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, which the Booker Fire Department estimated was 500 feet high.
“Pipeline blowouts” turned the sky into a hazy orange glow that could reportedly be seen for miles, Elmwood Fire said.
The Phillips 66 pipeline ruptured along the Oklahoma panhandle. Elmwood Fire/Facebook The flames climbed about 500 feet into the sky, fire officials said. Elmwood Fire/Facebook
“We are 36 miles from the fire and we can see it,” wrote one person under a Facebook post by the department showing the raging fire.
Another user posted a photo of the glow from 25 miles away, while another claimed they could see it from 80 miles away in Kansas.
The US Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is investigating the cause of the incident along with the Oklahoma Commissioning Corporation, a PHMSA spokeswoman said.
The cause of the explosion is still under investigation. Booker Fire Department/Facebook
The fire is the second in as many weeks involving Phillips 66.
Earlier this month, a worker was injured after a fire broke out at the 285,000-barrel-per-day Bayway refinery in New Jersey.
A similar incident occurred last year when a fire broke out in a storage tank farm at a 149,000 barrel per day refinery in Borger, Texas, injuring six people.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
