Feb 6, 2008 7:30 am US/Eastern
Huge Natural Gas Blaze Contained In Tenn.
HARTSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ―
Firefighters managed early Wednesday to contain a massive fire that erupted at a natural gas pumping station after a strong storm moved through the area.
Authorities said there were fatalities, but it wasn't immediately clear if they were from the storm or the fire or both.
The fire erupted at about 10 p.m. Tuesday at the Columbia Gulf Natural Gas pumping station near the Macon County community of Green Grove, about 40 miles northeast of Nashville.
Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning said the station could have been damaged by a line of severe storms that moved through Tennessee shortly before the fire broke out. At least 31 people were killed by the storms, 13 of them in Tennessee.
Tennessee Emergency Management spokesman Donnie Smith said Tuesday night that flames from the station fire were "shooting 400, 500 feet in the air."
Westmoreland Mayor Ricky Woodard said the fire was about seven miles away from his city and had spread to houses nearby. He said casualties have been reported in Macon County, and several people are reported missing.
Ashley Beff, who lives about five miles from the station, said she witnessed the explosion and said it caused the windows in her apartment to shake violently.
"It was God awful," she said. "It was like an explosion. The city looked like it was on fire."
Kelly Merritt, a spokesman for Columbia Gulf Transmission Co., said the company shut off the gas on both sides of the station, which is used to boost pressure along the gas line that runs from Louisiana to the West Virginia-Kentucky line.
Merritt said the station is not manned around the clock.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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