Natural gas facility erupts Tuesday sending flames soaring several feet in the air

An incident at a Marathon Oil natural gas liquids holding facility just east of Shiner sent blazing hot flames soaring several dozen feet high Tuesday, Oct. 3, temporarily shutting down U.S. 90A between Shiner and Hallettsville.

Emergency personnel temporarily rerouted traffic until the area was secured.

For as tall as those flames climbed into the sky last week, it was rather amazing that no serious injuries were reported with the incident.

Thankfully, Marathon Oil officials said the fire was put out quickly and contained before it spread much beyond the pipeline itself. Just one Marathon worker sustained the only onsite injury.

“The company reacted quickly to shut the line down remotely,” Assistant Fire Chief Michael Furrh said. “We just had to monitor it for about 30 minutes during the line bleed off.”

Authorities tell us the Texas Railroad Commission was onsite a few days later. While no definite cause was determined, Furrh said it was likely that static electricity likely played a contributing factor.

The Shiner Fire Department, along with several other emergency crews, responded to the scene east of Shiner on Highway 90A, just outside the city limits.

Authorities tell us the Texas Railroad Commission was at the site investigating the fire Wednesday.

Also on scene was the Lavaca County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Shiner Police Department, Lavaca County EMS, Lavaca County Sheriff's Office, TDEM CLO Lavaca/Gonzales.

It was one of several calls emergency responders worked in the last few days, which included major accidents on the Gonzales highway over the weekend, a major accident at Sweet Home a couple days later. And two rather large accident scenes farther down U.S. 90A past Hallettsville.

Saturday night, too, firemen were out at the Kaspar Companies properties. That fire was quickly put down and the scene was cleared in less than an hour.