A large natural gas line in north Texas erupted after being accidentally hit by utility workers drilling holes for utility poles, sending a massive fireball into the air and killing one worker, officials said.
Brian Fine, Hood County’s emergency management coordinator, said the worker’s body was found some distance from the blast site. The man’s name was not immediately released.
At least seven of the other 13 workers who had been working at the site went to hospitals. Gary Marks, chief executive of Glen Rose Medical Center, said two people were treated and released, and four others were in a stable condition.
One patient was taken to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. Spokeswoman Whitney Jodry had no information on his condition.
Laura Harlin, a resident of nearby Granbury, said she heard a “huge rumbling” that initially sounded like thunder and then like a tornado because it lasted so long.
“For about 10 minutes, it was so loud that it was like there was an 18-wheeler rumbling in your driveway,” she said.
A control room at Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners, which owns the gas line, immediately identified a break in the line near Cleburne, company spokesman Rick Rainey said.
The 90cm line was equipped with valves that automatically shut down gas to that section of pipe, and the fire was extinguished about two hours after the explosion.
The pipeline helps carry gas from West Texas across the state, to utilities, distribution companies and commercial users on the eastern end of the state. Rainey said the company would work with customers to avoid any disruption to their service.
The injured workers were digging for a subcontractor hired by Waco-based Brazos Electric Cooperative, said Jack Snow, Johnson County’s emergency management coordinator.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese