Around 10 A. M. Monday, Sept. 16, someone in a white SUV drove it through a chain-link fence in Deer Park, Texas and straight into the above-ground valve structure of an Energy Transfer Company liquefied-natural-gas underground pipeline in the city of Deer Park, Texas. When the pipe failed, it released the several hundred pounds per square inch of pressure that was keeping the material liquid along the miles of pipe that led to the valve. The liquid began boiling into gas, and spewed out a column of white vapor that immediately caught fire.
The resulting flame towered a hundred feet or more in the air and produced a plume of black smoke that could be seen for miles. The fire burned for four days, from Monday to Thursday, and was so big that International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit could see it from space and sent a photo down to prove it. Four people were injured, houses near the site were evacuated, and millions of dollars of damage was caused by the fire before it finally burned itself out sometime on Thursday Sept. 19. Once it was safe to approach the area, medical examiners recovered a body from the vehicle that caused the fire.
Residents of the now somewhat-ironically-named Deer Park are no strangers to petrochemical disasters. Living in one of the most concentrated areas of oil refining and petrochemical production in the world has both advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages are that there are usually plenty of good, stable jobs for people who are willing to work hard and take risks, and the city's tax base is jet-propelled by billions of dollars invested in plants and equipment. Some of the disadvantages are that you live in an atmosphere that is never entirely free of chemicals that may have long-term health risks, and sometimes things happen that pose more immediate dangers, for example a fire that melts the interior of the car that you had to abandon during an evacuation.
Partly to avoid insurance costs that would bankrupt any business, the refinery and petrochemical industries are some of the most safety-conscious in the world. I was once privileged to take a tour inside a working refinery, after viewing them from afar for most of my growing-up life in Texas. To gain this privilege, I had to sit through an hour-long series of training videos, sign a form, and when it got time to take the tour, all they did was load us on a bus and drive us through the place, maybe with a fire truck following after, I don't exactly recall.
But despite the best safety precautions human minds can devise, other human minds can come up with ways to thwart them. A friend of mine who lived and worked in Deer Park for many years has told me that the accident happened in a large right-of-way that carries many pipelines interconnecting the various plants in the Deer Park and La Porte area, which is on the Houston Ship Channel. A video captured at the time of the accident shows the SUV in question traveling well above the speed limit and steering straight for the valve assembly. Although the body recovered from the wreckage of the truck has not yet been publicly identified, reasonable speculation is that it is a case of suicide committed by someone who might have had inside knowledge of which valve to hit. Although terrorism isn't suspected by the authorities, the investigation is too new to have produced much in the way of firm results.
Some residents of the area have called for additional protection for vulnerable pipeline infrastructure. It would take something pretty substantial such as concrete barriers to prevent a similar intentional attack with a heavy vehicle, and there are plenty of vulnerable pipeline stations scattered around Texas and the rest of the country. If this was simply a spectacular way for an isolated individual to commit suicide, it is likely not to be repeated any time soon, and the idea of passing regulations to make all pipeline systems proof against such attacks might be judged excessive.
On the other hand, the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on the U. S. showed what a malevolent organization can do with people who are willing to give their lives for a cause. In terms of casualties, the destruction caused by this particular fire was relatively small, and probably would not have appealed to a terrorist bent on causing death and destruction. Fortunately, there was little wind during the fire, and any toxic products of the fire were carried far aloft, for the most part. Nevertheless, it was a major inconvenience while it lasted, and if it had happened closer to a more populated area such as a school, the consequences could have been much worse.
Residents of Deer Park who choose to live there or work there by and large know what they're getting into. In an ideal world, no one would have to, let alone want to, live in a place that might be a long-term hazard to your health, coupled with a small but non-zero risk of being blown up or incinerated. In many parts of the world, especially among professional and leadership classes, the entire array of fossil-fuel industries is something to get rid of as soon as we can.
But few of the people holding those opinions have lived in a place where one's father and perhaps grandfather has made a good living from fossil-fuel-related work. Nobody gets out alive, and during one's brief time on earth, doing something that can benefit others, even at risk to oneself, can be viewed as a good thing. One person, for reasons known only to God now, decided that his own personal time was up, and chose to end that time in a spectacular way that ended one life and endangered others.
We should do what we can to keep things like this from happening again. But just as important is creating a cultural environment in which the average person can do remunerative work and feel that the rest of the world, or at least a good bit of it, appreciates what one does instead of wishing it would all just go away.
Sources: I referred to reports on the fire at https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/energy-environment/2024/09/19/500356/deer-park-pipeline-fire-human-remains-suv-removed/ and https://abc13.com/post/deer-park-pipeline-blast-site-repairs-days-after-explosion-forced-residents-homes/15331135/. The photo from space can be seen at https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/deer-park-pipeline-fire-international-space-station-photo/285-9c64b48c-b81e-48b3-aa40-ae740e057ab6.
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