Resident Describes Gas Line Explosion In Harper County

A huge explosion rocked parts of rural Harper County Tuesday night. An apparent problem with a 30 inch gas pipeline was the cause. Witnesses said they saw flames from miles away.

10/9/2013 Related Story: Gas Line Explosion Rocks Harper County; Families Forced Out Of Homes

Kevin Terry and his family live on the property where the explosion happened. He said they were all asleep when the force of the explosion woke them up. It happened only 200 yards away from their house.

"We were woken up by a sound we never heard before. A big explosion and the house lit up," said Terry. "I almost thought it was a jet or something that crashed behind the house, what it seemed to me. I couldn't figure out what was going on."

Terry, his wife and 10-year-old son scrambled to gather some things and get out of the house. The Harper County Emergency Manager told News 9 that four houses in a two mile area of the explosion were evacuated. Luckily there were no injuries.

"You could feel the heat. It was the windows shaking. The whole house was shaking, it never stopped shaking. It was shaking when we left from the force of the gas coming out," said Terry.

It took firefighters several hours to get the blaze under control, and as they let the fire burn itself out. Terry guessed that the hole was about 200 feet long, 30 feet wide and 10 to 15 feet deep.

A spokesperson for Northern Natural Gas said they had crews on the scene that were working with federal regulators to help determine what caused the pipeline to blow up. He said that they had not determined that exact cause by Wednesday afternoon. He also said crews would be working to repair the site.

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Kevin Terry told News 9 that his family was allowed to return to their house on Wednesday and luckily it did not suffer any damage.