DEER PARK, Texas — A pipeline fire that had been burning outside Houston for four days was finally contained Thursday, as authorities announced they were launching a criminal investigation into how the blaze spread so fast it forced nearby residents to evacuate and melted parts of a nearby car.
Before the blaze was fully extinguished Thursday evening, authorities said human remains had been found inside an SUV that had been near the flames since Monday’s explosion. Investigators said the blaze started when the driver of that vehicle drove through a fence on the side of the Walmart parking lot and struck a valve at ground level.
Officials in Deer Park, where the explosion occurred, said the crash was an accident and that police and local FBI agents had found no evidence of a coordinated or terrorist attack.
“This has evolved into a criminal investigation and will remain an active investigation pending further information,” the city said in a statement late Thursday.
As authorities tried to identify the driver, residents who had been forced to flee the blaze returned to assess the damage on Thursday, finding mailboxes and cars partially melted by the intense heat, a nearby park scorched and destroyed and fences burned down.
“I’m sad, I’m upset, I’m scared. I don’t know what to do,” said Diane Hutt, 51, who found her home badly damaged by water firefighters had sprayed on it to try to stop the blaze. Hutt’s home is just a few hundred feet from the pipeline.
Police were finally able to gain access to the area around the pipeline as the fire shrunk before being put out. Investigators removed the white SUV and towed it away Thursday morning.
Deer Park officials said in a statement that human remains found inside the vehicle were recovered and contained by Harris County medical examiners while inspecting it.
Authorities said the underground pipeline, which runs underneath high-voltage power lines in a grassy walkway between Walmart and a residential area, was damaged when the driver of an SUV left the store’s parking lot, entered a large grassy area and drove through a fence surrounding valve equipment.
But authorities have released few details about what caused the vehicle to crash through the fence and strike a pipeline valve.
Energy Transfer, the Dallas company that owns the pipeline, said Wednesday it was an accident, and Deer Park officials said a preliminary investigation by police and FBI agents had found no evidence of a terrorist attack.
The pipeline is a 20-inch (50 centimeter) wide conduit that runs for miles through the Houston area. The pipeline will transport natural gas liquids through Deer Park and LaPorte, both southeast of Houston.
Authorities evacuated about 1,000 homes and told residents of a nearby school to shelter in place at one point, but began allowing people to return home on Wednesday evening.
Hutt said Thursday that the fire had destroyed a fence in their backyard and partially melted a small shed where her husband stored his lawnmower. Inside the house, mold had started growing from water damage and part of the ceiling in her daughter’s bedroom had collapsed.
“Everything is soaked,” she said. “The stench is awful. I don’t think there’s anything that can be salvaged at this point.”
Robert Blair returned to his home across the street Thursday morning to find minor damage, including broken and cracked windows, window screens and irrigation system pipes melted by the heat.
“We’re very lucky here. It could have been a lot worse,” Blair, 67, said.
The pipeline’s valve facilities appear to have been protected by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Energy Transfer did not respond to questions about other security measures that were in place.
Harris County’s top elected official, County Judge Lina Hidalgo, said Thursday that officials will consider whether they can require companies like Energy Transfer to take better safety measures, such as installing concrete structures around pipelines and above-ground valves.
“If they had known, I don’t think this would have happened,” Blair said.
Energy Transfer and Harris County officials said air quality monitoring did not indicate any immediate danger to individuals, even though a huge tower of flame rose hundreds of feet into the air and thick, black smoke drifted across the area when the fire first began.
Houston, Texas’ largest city, is the center of the U.S. petrochemical industry, home to refineries, factories and thousands of miles of pipelines. Explosions and fires, some deadly, have been frequent in the region, raising repeated questions about the adequacy of the industry’s efforts to protect the public and the environment.
Hidalgo said some residents she spoke to said they felt unsafe living in the area after this week’s fires.
Ms Hutt, whose husband works at a petrochemical plant, said living near such a facility had always been a worry, but this week’s fire had changed that.
“I don’t want to live here anymore. It’s too scary to stay here,” Hatt said.
