DEER PARK, TX – It’s been a difficult week for Diane and Steve Hutto, and many other families in the Deer Park and La Porte area after Monday’s pipeline blast and fire. The natural gas fire was so intense, it melted shingles off nearby roofs and plastic off cars.
“It’s heartbreaking, it’s heartbreaking,” Diane told KPRC 2′s Deven Clark, trying not to break down emotionally. “We wanna come home.”
When the all-clear came Thursday evening, the Huttos did return home. The outside shed melted from the intense heat. They’re just a stone’s throw away from the pipeline fire.
“It sounded like a nuclear bomb,” Diane said, remembering the moment Monday when the house shook.
“I jumped out of my seat, grabbed the dogs ran downstairs when I got downstairs then I knew what it was. It was the pipeline because I turned around and it was this enormous inferno,”
CONTINUOUS COVERAGE OF THE DEER PARK PIPELINE FIRE
Inside the home, their fire alarm was still going off.
“Everything, everything is ruined,” Diane said.
With the smell of mildew filling every corner of the home, the Huttos know their problems may be far deeper than what’s visible.
“We’re trying to keep it together because we got day-to-day things we’re having to do to square things away but the desire to want to stick your head in the ground or ball up is right there… but you can’t do it,” Steve Hutto said.
The couple couldn’t stay inside the house and they’re not quite sure if they’ll ever really get to go back to the home they had. A home insurance adjuster is coming out Thursday to assess, give them some information and hopefully some options.
The Deer Park pipeline fire was still burning Thursday morning, but visibly dissipating. The city estimates it will be out tonight.
The car you could still see next to the flame early Thursday moring is the target of an investigation. Witnesses who saw it drive through the fence Monday and hit a pipe valve told KPRC 2 the driver might have had something go wrong, medically. That driver is unaccounted for.
When daylight came that car was pulled further away from the fire and handed over to an investigative team.
The drive is unaccounted for.