One person is missing and several injured after a gas explosion and fire Monday in rural north Texas, according to two emergency management officials. Officials say one person is missing after a gas explosion and fire near Cleburne, Texas, about 80 km southwest of Dallas.Officials say one person is missing after a gas explosion and fire near Cleburne, Texas, about 80 miles southwest of Dallas. (CBC) Contrary to first reports, officials from both provinces Hood and Johnson said there was no known deaths from the explosion near Cleburne, about 80 km southwest of Dallas.
Hood County emergency management coordinator Brian Fine said that the missing person is a subcontractor who is part of a crew digging holes for utility poles.
Cleburne City Manager Chester Nolen originally told The Associated Press that at least three people were dead. But after fire officials and pipeline operator fires were extinguished, Nolen said they were not sure if anyone had been slain.
Johnson County emergency management coordinator Jack Snow said several people were taken to hospital.
The fire sent flames soaring into the air for about two hours before closing the gas valve off. Television images showed a large fireball and a burn-out vehicles and construction equipment at the site of the explosion.
The heat was “unbearable”, even 300 meters from the flames, said Nolen. A column of gray smoke was visible miles away.
Nolen said workers apparently hit the gas with an excavator while working on a communications line.
Laura Harlin, a resident of the nearby Granbury, said the explosion was a “huge rumble and sounded like a tornado from her home 12 km away.
“For about 10 minutes, it was so loud that it was as if a 18-wheeler rumbling in your driveway,” she said.
source:CBC
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