CALDWELL COUNTY

The Volunteer Mobile Emergency Response Unit was dispatched to the below incident in Luling Texas at 10:23 am and was canceled at 12:16pm after fire was caped and main was shut off. Please go to KXAN news for more on this story at www.kxan.com

Gas pipeline fire burns out
No one injured in Caldwell County natural gas explosion; investigators headed to site

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, August 28, 2008

Flames flashed 80 feet into the air this morning but no injuries were reported when a natural gas pipeline exploded about 11 miles southwest of Lockhart near Stairtown.

It was not immediately clear what caused the 36-inch-diameter Oasis pipeline owned and operated by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP to rupture at about 7:45 a.m.

The rupture occurred near a compressor station that pressurizes the gas line, said Ramona Nye, a spokeswoman for the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates pipeline safety. Both ends of the ruptured segment were blocked off and a "controlled burn" was under way to eliminate the remaining gas, she said.

Nye said the commission had dispatched an inspector to the scene and would complete a report in 45 days.

Asked about the company's track record, Nye said, "They have a good record and we haven't had any violations issued against them in the last five years on this Oasis line."

Deputy Chief David Creed with the Luling Police Department said no injuries have been reported and no one in the area has been evacuated. Fire officials in Lockhart said the explosion was felt there.

The explosion occurred about three miles east of Prairie Lea School, but students are still in school, officials said. The Prairie Lea school district has a collection of buildings housing about 250 students in all grade levels, but only a few faculty members were there at the time of explosion.

"At this time, the only effect this has is we've asked the students and teachers to stay in classrooms," said Darren Kesselus, director of curriculum at the district.

A few parents have already picked up their children, Kesselus said, but he said authorities have told the district that students were safer in the school than on the road because of concerns about transformers located along the highway. One class in the vicinity of a transformer has been moved t

o another classroom, Kesselus said.

Because gas has been turned off in the area, schools will serve cold sandwiches instead of a hot lunch, which Kesselus said the district always has available as a backup.

Kesselus said the district superintendent is at the explosion site and is keeping in contact with administrators at the school in case anything changes.

"We are staying vigilant," he said.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials said an area several miles wide had been cordoned off around the explosion site, and firefighters from Luling, Lockhart and other departments were on the scene. The officials asked not to be quoted by name because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

The fire had burned out by noon, officials said, but at midmorning the flames were still reported shooting skyward at the scene, and a large cloud of smoke remained visible miles away.

In Austin, a DPS spokesperson acknowledged that state troopers were assisting at the scene, but directed inquiries about details of the explosion to the Caldwell County sheriff's office, where phones lines rang busy.

Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners, said the company operates nearly 14,000 miles of natural gas pipelines in Texas, as well as additional pipelines outside the state. The Oasis line conveys natural gas from West Texas to Katy, near Houston, where the line connects with other pipelines, she said.