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October 13, 2015Three workers were killed and two injured Thursday after an explosion and fire at a gas pipeline facility in Gibson.
Terrebonne Parish emergency responders received a call around 11 a.m. of an explosion at the Williams Gas Pipeline Company, 4711 Bayou Black Drive.
Trooper Evan Harrell, a Louisiana State Police Spokesman, said black smoke still rising above the fire at 3:30 p.m. did not pose a health concern for residents in the area, some of whom left their homes in fear.
He confirmed the three fatalities and the two known injuries. There were about 20 workers on the premises at the time the explosion occurred, Harrell said, and all are now accounted for.
“It is not an inhalation hazard,” Harrell said, as firefighters continued knocking down fire burning in and near what is described as a “residual sludge tank.”
It was the sludge tank and not the pipeline itself that was involved in the explosion and the fire, said Christopher Stockton, a Williams spokesman.
The incident is under investigation, Harrell said.
Two contracting companies, Danos of Houma and Furminite of Geismer had workers at the facility. Harrell could not say for whom the dead and injured actually worked.
La. Highway Highway 182 remained shut down at 3:30 p.m. between the Blanchard Bridge and the Greenwood Bridge.
Fire departments from throughout Terrebonne Parish responded to the scene, providing extra manpower to Gibson volunteers. Acadian Ambulance sent ground units and at least one helicopter.
Well into the afternoon, a thin column of gray smoke was still visible, rising above the plant.
The facility is part of 10,000-mile pipeline system that stretches from Texas to New York. The Gibson area pipeline was not operational at the time of the blast. The cause has not yet been determined.
Vicky Bergeron, who lives alongside the plant property in a trailer, said she and her husband were watching television Thursday morning when the first of two explosions occurred.
“We heard a big boom,” she said. “The trailer started shaking and I seen fire shooting up in the air and there was black smoke. Some people were running toward the highway.”
Bergeron said she then heard another explosion.
“People were coming out on the street and saying ‘get out of here’ so I grabbed my dogs and we left,” Bergeron said.
Timmy Moore, who lives about 100 feet from the site, traveled toward Houma, joining Bergeron and others who live near the scene at Rajun Cajun Food and Gas on Southdown Mandalay Road.
Although not ordered to evacuate, Moore said he was taking no chances.
“There’s a lot of toxins in the air,” he said, referring to the smoke. “The air is funny out there. We don’t know if we need to get a hotel. We don’t know nothing.”
Robo-calls were made to parents of students at Greenwood Middle and Bayou Black Elementary schools advising them that students were safe and in place and that school buildings suffered no damage.
Parents could pick up children from the schools if they wished but early dismissal was not ordered.
Miles Knoblock, parent of a student at Bayou Black Elementary, said he was picking up the child early to be on the safe side.
Terrebonne Parish school officials were still determining how to route school busses as dismissal drew near due to the road closures.
Arthur Breaux, who owns the gas station and convenience store where neighbors gathered, said he was comfortable with his business turning into an ersatz evacuation center.
“It’s scary. It shows what can happen on any given day. It’s a dangerous world out there,” Breaux said. “The people are welcome to hang out for a while. We don’t usually encourage that. But today, today it’s a special circumstance obviously. Today is something that’s an extraordinary circumstance.”
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The Times staffers John DeSantis, JP Arguello, Casey Gisclair, Karl Gommel and Shell Armstrong contributed to this article.