A 36-inch underground natural gas pipeline exploded into flames Monday in Johnson County, Texas, killing three people and injuring at least eight, officials said.
"There was a crew working on the line and they apparently ruptured it somehow, and caused an explosion," Cleburne, Texas, City Manager Chester Nolen told CNN in a telephone interview.
"The latest reports still indicate three fatalities," he said. The injured were taken to hospitals in Hood County, Somervell County and Johnson County, he said.
"They are in the process of closing the valves to contain the fire," which was visible eight miles away, he said. "It was under pressure, so it's going to take a little while for the fire to go down."
The line is owned by Enterprise Products out of Houston, he said.
The blaze was so fierce that crews could get no closer than 600 yards to the source of the fire, said Cleburne Fire Chief Clint Ishmael.
Three victims were en route to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, which has a burn unit, according to a spokesperson for Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Cleburne.
Another five were taken to Glen Rose Medical Center in Glen Rose, Texas, where they were in stable condition, said CEO Gary Marks.
The pipeline erupted around 2:40 p.m., and the shaking lasted for about 10 minutes, said Laura Harlin, who lives about a mile away. "Our house shook, glass shook," she said. "We watched this huge plume of smoke or steam rising above our neighborhood."
A rumble was continuing more than an hour later, she said.
