A natural gas line explosion early Tuesday morning in Louisiana evacuated about 55 people from their homes and closed off roads leading to the area near Enon, outside New Orleans.
WWL TV reports:
The amount of scorched earth near the explosion made it appear as if a bomb was detonated, Seal said.
An approximate 80-foot segment of the pipeline was blown away, causing a nearly 300-foot heavily-wooded radius to be completely leveled, according to Louisiana State Police Trooper Nick Manale.
Florida Gas, who owns the line, shut down the gas line around 6:45 a.m.
Seal said the company released more gas in an attempt to get the remaining "residual gas out of the pipeline. So you may be hearing a few more explosions, but nothing serious is going to happen.""Crews have isolated and contained the west end of that pipeline, basically the ignition source is now gone from that pipeline, and all of the residual natural gas has been drained," Manale said.
He said there is still a small amount of ignition aflame on the east side coming from the Bogalusa area. Crews are working to drain the pressure and residual gas out of the segment.
The report from the Louisiana State Police and Department of Environmental Quality Hazmat indicated the suspected cause of the explosion was a rupture of a 30-inch natural gas line, according to the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. The cause of the explosion remained under investigation.
Amazingly, there were no injuries and no fatalities as a result of the explosion. Approximately 10,000 area residents lost power.
Tuesday's gas line blast is Louisiana's third petro-chemical related explosion and fire in less than a week.
Last Thursday an explosion and fire at Williams Olefins in Geismar killed two workers and injured dozens of others. Friday night, a container explosion at CF Industries in Donaldsonville killed one worker.
