As many as 1,000 people were evacuated within a 2-mile radius of the explosion and fire at a natural gas plant in Plymouth Monday morning and five people were injured.
The fire at the Northwest Pipeline facility in Plymouth, Wash., began around 8:19 a.m. when a liquefied natural gas pipe ruptured at the plant in Plymouth causing an explosion. A piece of shrapnel from the pipe then ruptured a 14.6-million-gallon storage tank causing a leak of liquefied natural gas. Northwest Pipeline is a subsidiary of Williams Partners.
Emergency personnel went door to door within a 2-mile radius of the plant ordering residents to evacuate.
“We did it the old-fashioned way,” said Deputy Joe Lusignan of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. Highway 14 was closed from Patterson to Interstate 82. Plymouth is an unincorporated town of about 200 people.
Five Northwest Pipeline employees were injured – one was sent to a burn center and four others were treated locally.
Monday afternoon, a Washington State Patrol robot and a Williams Partner helicopter were sent to the scene to assess the damage. The evacuation remains in effect within a one-mile radius as of Tuesday morning.
Emergency personnel from Walla Walla, Franklin County, Benton County and Yakima County responded to the scene. All told, about 120 emergency responders were on the scene Monday.
Lusignan said the vaporized natural gas from the ruptured tank could explode under the right conditions and would be lethal to anyone within a three-quarter mile radius. The fumes from the leak also posed health hazards.
“The guys evacuating folks said they could smell the fumes,” he said. “It can definitely make you nauseous and sick.”
It is unknown what caused the initial pipe to rupture or how much damage was caused to the facility.
