Steve Quayle News Alerts

Nov. 8, 2004
The Associated Press

IVEL, Ky. (AP) — A fiery gas line explosion destroyed homes and injured nine people Monday, including an off-duty state police trooper who helped rescue a woman and a small child.

Trooper Rick Conn suffered third-degree burns, Kentucky State Police said. He was in fair condition late Monday, said Kathy Cosco, a spokeswoman for Cabell-Huntington Hospital in West Virginia.

Three people were treated and released at Our Lady of the Way Hospital in Floyd County, a hospital spokeswoman said. Four people were taken to Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg, a spokeswoman said. One was taken to Pikeville Medical Center, said state police Trooper Scott Hopkins. Updated conditions were not available late Monday.

Sgt. Phil Crumpton, a state police spokesman in Frankfort, said Conn was on his way to work at the Pikeville post when he smelled gas coming from the Floyd County subdivision where he lives. Conn was driving when the blast occurred, and the explosion blew out the windows in his cruiser. Conn was injured, but continued toward the homes to help evacuate people, Crumpton said.

"He heard a call for help and pulled a woman and small child out and then collapsed," Crumpton said. "I heard he's in good spirits. He's got burns on the face, neck, chest and hands."

By late afternoon, all the house fires were out, Crumpton said, but authorities were still waiting for the gas pipeline to burn out.

The cause of the blast was not immediately known.

Officials from the federal Office of Pipeline Safety were en route to the scene Monday afternoon. They would have to wait for the blaze to burn out to begin their investigation, said spokesman Damon Hill in Washington, D.C.. Investigators should be able to determine quickly if the line was tampered with, he said.

"If it's third party damage, we can identify that normally fairly quickly," Hill said. "If it's some other type of mechanical error it could possibly take up to a month or so."

The 4-inch line carrying natural gas liquids to a processing plant exploded about 8:30 a.m. EST, said Stacy Floden, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Emergency Management Agency.

Floden said the high-pressure gas line belonged to Kentucky-West Virginia Gas Co. Kentucky West Virginia Gas is a division of Equitable Gas in Pittsburgh, Pa., according to David Spigelmyer, a spokesman for Equitable Gas.

He confirmed that the company owns the line, but said it is operated and maintained by another company — Mark West.

Cory Bromley, spokesman for Mark West Hydrocarbon in Colorado said the company believes it operates the pipeline. The cause, he said, is still unknown, and the company probably won't know it for some time, because the pipeline is buried underground. He said valves on either side of the rupture had been shut off.

Mark West Hydrocarbon, Inc. is an owner of Mark West Energy Partners, which is engaged in the gathering, transmission, processing, and marketing of hydrocarbons and the marketing of natural gas and natural gas liquids, according to the company's Web site.

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