Huge fireball in gas explosion burns homes, fleeing man

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A natural gas pipeline exploded in a towering, roaring fireball Friday, destroying a home several hundred yards away, damaging at least three others and creating waves of intense heat that burned a fleeing homeowner as he ran down a road, authorities said.

“It looked like you were looking down into hell,” said Forbes Road Volunteer Fire Chief Bob Rosatti.

The fire and heat seared scores of acres of woodlands around the pipeline in Salem Township, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, turning tall trees into blackened poles, melting the siding off one property, and causing wet pavement to steam. People miles away reported hearing a huge whooshing sound and feeling the ground rumble.

A quarter-mile evacuation zone was established, affecting about a dozen homes, said state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman John Poister.

The pipeline was shut off and the fire brought under control within an hour, but residual gas burned for several hours before the fire was completely out by early afternoon, officials said.

The man who was burned lived in the house closest to the fire. It was destroyed.

“He told us that he heard a loud noise and compared it to a tornado. All he saw was fire and started running up the roadway and a passerby picked him up,” Rosatti said.

“The heat was so intense that it was burning him as he was running,” he said.

He was conscious and talking to rescue workers when he was taken to the hospital, officials said.

The pipeline is owned by Texas Eastern Transmission, a unit of Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp. What caused the fire to erupt was under investigation.

Spectra Energy said the 30-inch diameter section of pipeline where the fire occurred had been built in 1981 and that “no areas of concern” were found during an inline inspection in 2012.

“Our first concern is for the safety of the community and our employees, and we are cooperating and coordinating with state and local authorities in our response,” the company said in a statement.

The pipeline is one of four parallel lines owned by Texas Eastern that run through the rural tract that Pete Rugh, 84, has called home his entire life.

“It scared the heck out of me. I heard this terrible roar. It shook to beat the devil,” Rugh said.