A natural gas pipeline caught fire Monday morning in a suburb of Houston, Texas, creating a huge jet of flames and forcing the evacuation of several residents and businesses in the area.
The fire broke out around 9:55 a.m. in the town of La Porte, about 25 miles from Houston, the Texas city’s emergency services confirmed in a Facebook post.
The pipeline is owned by Energy Transfer, which confirmed that the product that has been burning for hours is liquefied natural gas.
The company confirmed to CNN in a statement that an incident occurred at one of its valve stations involving a 20-inch (about 50 cm) liquefied natural gas line.
“The line has been isolated so that any product residue in the line can burn off safely,” the company said. “We don’t know how long the process will take, but we are working closely with local authorities.”
One firefighter suffered minor injuries.
The images of the event are spectacular, with the jet of flame rising high into the air.
