Sissonville, West Virginia Fire contained after gas pipeline explosion, Interstate 77 closed in both directions

Tuesday, December 11 2012 @ 08:18 pm EST

Contributed by: CBrining

Sissonville West Virginia Explosion

Posted: Dec 11, 2012 12:55 PM ESTUpdated: Dec 11, 2012 7:32 PM EST

Update: 5:28 p.m.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin just completed a tour of a region in Sissonville where a massive gas line explosion today leveled five homes, but did not kill anyone.

Flames from the blast, which occurred shortly before 1 p.m. today, reached 80 to 90 feet in the air, incinerating.....Continue Reading

trees, homes, cars and destroyed an 800-foot section of north and south-bound lanes of Interstate 77.

According to officials, between two and five people were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. Everyone within 1,000 radius of the blast was evacuated to shelters.

Contractors will be working all night on the interstate. The flames were so hot, highway officials said the guardrails melted. They hope to have the highway reopened tomorrow.

"The state fire marshal's office has confirmed no fatalities and that everyone in the area has been accounted for," Tomblin said during a news conference following his tour of the area. "We've been very fortunate that the time of the explosion there were no vehicles in the proximity of the interstate."

Tomblin said federal and state pipeline officials are investigating the cause of the explosion.

"Its one of those rare events that happens. At this time we do not have answers. Hopefully in the next several hours we will have a better idea of what caused the explosion," he said.

The explosion did burn up some power lines, but AEP is coming to fix those. Frontier telephone lines are also down. Tjose should be repaired soon, too.

No one was home at any of the residences at the time of the explosion. Tomblin said one man who lived in one of the houses had just gone out rabbit hunting.

"That's the fortunate thing. Had there been people in those homes, obviously it could have been a disaster," he said.

Tomblin described the road as charred and baked.

"It was like walking on a volcano,"he said.

Paul Mattox, secretary of the Department of Transportation, said West Virginia Paving arrived on site before 5 p.m. to begin repair work.

"Our engineers are telling me that they are hopeful to get the road back open ... tomorrow evening."