An early morning gas line explosion on Tuesday sent residents of one Louisiana community packing, as emergency responders rushed to extinguish the flames and contain the fire.
“We’ve evacuated around 55 people,” said one emergency responder, in a WWL-TV report. “There have been no fatalities; no one died. There’s no injuries.” Firefighters have the incident “under control,” he added, in the report.
Florida Gas, the company that owns the gas line, shut down the flow around 6:45 a.m. But the shock to residents was significant.
The explosion rocked large enough to physically shake residents in Washington Parish from their beds. It left in its wake an imprint in the ground that looked like a bomb detonation, WWL-TV reported.
Louisiana State Police and officials with the Department of Environmental Quality Hazmat said the cause of the explosion was likely a rupture in the line. They didn’t explain in the report what caused the rupture.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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