JUNCTION CITY: A regional gas pipeline ruptured in Kentucky, causing a massive explosion that killed one person, injured five others, destroyed railroad tracks and forced the evacuation of a nearby mobile home park, authorities said.
Some structures were completely consumed by the blaze, and five to seven people were unaccounted for when firefighters extinguished the flames hours later, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Don Gilliam said.
“The part of the area that has been compromised, there’s just nothing left,” Gilliam said when asked whether residents might return to their trailer homes. “The residences that are still standing or damaged will be accessible. There doesn’t really look like there’s any in-between back there. They’re either destroyed or they’re still standing.”
The 30-inch (76-centimeter) wide pipeline moves natural gas under such high pressure that the flames reached about 300 feet in the air and could be seen throughout the county, he said.
(Agencies)
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