LNG Pipeline Explosion and Fire Force Evacuations in Texas Town

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Fire damage to a playground, an evacuation order for at least 350 homes, and another potential evacuation of an assisted living facility were among the hazards suffered by residents of La Porte, Texas on Monday after a fire erupted from an explosion at a pipeline in the Houston-area town.

Officials in nearby Deer Park confirmed the pipeline was owned by Energy Transfer, the company with a majority stake in the Dakota Access Pipeline which has sued Greenpeace for protests over the fossil fuel project. Local NBC News affiliate KPRC-TV said the chemical burning was Chemical Y Grade liquid natural gas.

KHOU, another local news affiliate, reported that about 4,000 homes were experiencing power outages, and the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council said it was working on a potential evacuation of a nursing home.

"We have seen the flames get bigger and bigger with a huge amount of smoke," said Shiv Srivastava, organizer and policy researcher with the Houston-area advocacy group Fenceline Watch, in a video posted to the social media platform X.

Srivastava noted that the site of the fire was close to "several schools including Deer Park Elementary and La Porte ISD schools as well."

"We are near a community right now," he added in a video as the blaze was visible in the background.

A shelter-in-place order was in effect for La Porte public schools as well as San Jacinto College.

A video posted by Chris Walker of Fox 7 Austin appeared to show a neighborhood filled with homes in the immediate vicinity of the flames.

"All of a sudden we hear this loud bang and then I see something bright, like orange, coming from our back door that's outside," a La Porte resident named Geselle Melina Guerra told the Associated Press.

The public health and climate watchdog Food & Water Watch the incident offers the latest proof of what it already widely known: "Fossil fuel infrastructure is dangerous."

"We cannot keep living like this!" said the group.