7 Injured in Midland Texas Pipeline Explosion

According to the Public Information Officer for the City of Midland,, Elana Ladd, the total number of individuals injured in the explosion has risen to seven.

Five have been transported to Lubbock as of this time.

One Midland Fire Department Fire Fighter is among the additional count.

All pipelines at the location site have been shut in.

Fire Department personnel are allowing the remaining gas present to burn off.

"It was just a huge ball of fire. A huge ball of fire from looked like a mile or two away. Which it was, two miles away,” she said.

Midland resident Amber Studie described the explosion, which she watched from her front door and captured on video.

“It was out on the porch letting my dogs outside and I just heard this loud explosion, but it was more like a rumble,” she said.

And that rumble wasn’t just in the air, it shook the whole house, and the ground outside for around a minute. 

“I mean, it was initially scary because. We didn’t know what it was, and the rumble, we felt the rumble. It was obviously loud, we could hear it but we could feel it too,” she said.

Midland Fire Marshall Dale Little said the explosion Studie witnessed was part of three natural gas pipeline explosions in Midland on FM 1379, five miles South of Highway 158.

“They had a leak on the pipeline. Fire department responded to it. Midland Fire Department and Greenwood Fire Department. And while they were down there, they were fighting some grass fires along with it. Apparently something happened to the pipeline. We don’t know what it is yet, because we can’t get in there to look at it. But they had a failure within the pipeline itself and the first one exploded. Then they had two other small explosions, one medium and one small,” he said.

Seven people were taken to the hospital with critical injuries, four with burns. Two firefighters are among the victims of the explosion, one with Greenwood Fire Department, and the other with Midland Fire Department.

The other five victims are employees of the pipeline company, whose name hasn’t been released.

Five of those injured are at a hospital in Lubbock.

As of 10 pm Wednesday evening, officials said all pipelines at the site have been shut in, and Midland Fire Department is allowing the remaining gas to burn off.

FM 1379 has been re-opened, after being closed since the explosions occurred Wednesday afternoon.

Source: CBS7