The pipeline fire in a Houston suburb has been extinguished after burning for 4 days.
A pipeline fire that burned in a Houston suburb for four days finally went out Thursday as authorities announced a criminal investigation into the blaze that had roared into a towering flame, forcing neighborhoods to evacuate and melting parts of nearby cars.
Before the fire fully stopped Thursday evening, officials announced that human remains were found in an SUV that had been next to the flame since the explosion happened Monday. Investigators say the fire began after the driver of that car went through a fence alongside a Walmart parking lot and struck an above-ground valve.
Officials in Deer Park, where the explosion occurred, described the crash as an accident, and said police and local FBI agents have not found evidence of a coordinated or terrorist attack.
“This has developed into a criminal investigation and will be actively ongoing until more information is available,” the city said in a statement late Thursday.
As authorities worked to identify who had driven the vehicle, residents who were forced to flee the towering blaze returned to assess the damage on Thursday. They found mailboxes and vehicles partially melted by the intense heat, a neighborhood park charred and destroyed and fences burned to the ground.
“Devastated, upset, scared. We don’t know what we’re going to do now,” said Diane Hutto, 51, after finding her home severely damaged by water that firefighters poured on it to keep it from catching fire. Hutto’s home is located only a few hundred feet from the pipeline.
Before the fire went out, its reduced size meant police finally had access to the area around the pipeline. Investigators removed the white SUV and towed it away Thursday morning.
While medical examiners with Harris County were processing the vehicle, they recovered and removed human remains found inside, Deer Park officials said in a statement.
Officials say the underground pipeline, which runs under high-voltage power lines in a grassy corridor between the Walmart and a residential neighborhood, was damaged when the SUV driver left the store’s parking lot, entered the wide grassy area and went through a fence surrounding the valve equipment.
But authorities have offered few details on what caused the vehicle to crash through the fence and hit the pipeline valve.
Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based company that owns the pipeline, on Wednesday called it an accident. Deer Park officials said preliminary investigations by police and FBI agents found no evidence of a terrorist attack.
The pipeline is a 20-inch-wide (50-centimeter-wide) conduit that runs for miles through the Houston area. It carries natural gas liquids through Deer Park and La Porte, both of which are southeast of Houston.
Authorities evacuated nearly 1,000 homes at one point and ordered people in nearby schools to shelter in place. Officials began letting residents return to their homes on Wednesday evening.
Hutto said Thursday the fire incinerated her home’s backyard fence and partially melted a small shed where her husband stored his lawnmower. Inside the home, mold and mildew were starting to set in from the water damage, and part of the ceiling in her daughter’s bedroom had collapsed.
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