DEER PARK, Texas – Homeowners in Deer Park were caught off guard by the pipeline explosion and fire.
The initial blast and heat damaged surrounding homes and vehicles at nearby neighborhoods and businesses. There were homeowners who’ve lived in the area for over a decade and never seen or heard of anything like this happening.
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This incident also raised concerns for homeowners who are now thinking, “Could this happen to me? If so, what should I do?”
Well, if you want to check if you live near a pipeline or are searching for a home in a certain area and want to check, the Railroad Commission of Texas has provided a map.
Once you have the map open, click on the top left where it says, ‘visibility’, then check the box that says, ‘pipelines’. You can then look up your address in the top right search bar.
The website not only helps you look up nearby pipelines, but who owns the pipeline in the event of a fire. It also provides what kind of gas the pipeline holds, such as natural gas, highly volatile liquid, refined liquid, etc.
In the case of the Deer Park fire, there were at least 17 pipelines in the area owned by several companies, including Energy Transfer.
You may be surprised to see a similar occurrence if you run a search. This is because pipelines are commonly collocated to avoid impacting undisturbed land, to reduce permitting, and because there is a historic case of federal and state agencies allowing construction in this area.
KPRC 2 also reached out to Energy Transfer to see if more will be done to secure these pipeline locations from a future incident but have not heard back yet.