[February 13, 2014](Reuters) — U.S. natural gas
pipeline company NiSource Inc said it was investigating an explosion on
its key Columbia Gulf Transmission interstate natural gas pipeline in
Adair County, Kentucky that injured at least one person.
The blast early Thursday morning engulfed and destroyed homes and
cars, authorities said.
The explosion and fire in Knifley, Kentucky, about 90 miles south of
Louisville, could be seen "just as plain as day" from Columbia,
about 12 miles from the blaze, a local police officer said.
Katherine Dupuis, a spokeswoman for NiSource, said the company was
investigating the incident and would provide more details later. She
could not say if the pipeline was still operating.
Adair County Emergency Management Director Greg Thomas said he
believed the gas on that section of the pipeline was turned off.
Columbia Gulf Transmission consists of approximately 3,400 miles of
pipeline and 11 compressor stations with nearly half-a-million
horsepower, located primarily in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee
and Kentucky, according to the company website.
The Columbia system is interconnected to virtually every major
pipeline system operating in the Gulf Coast and interconnects with
pipelines serving markets in the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast.
Police were notified of an explosion at about 1 a.m. local time
(0200 ET) on Thursday, Thomas, the Adair County official, said.
The explosion spawned multiple woodland and structural fires, Thomas
said. Three homes were set ablaze, two of them were fully destroyed,
as well as two barns and four cars.
The one injured person was sent to an area hospital but the extent
of injuries was not known, Thomas said.
The fires had largely been contained and were being allowed to burn
out, Thomas said.
Columbia Gulf is part of NiSource's Columbia Pipeline Group, which
owns and operates more than 15,700 miles of natural gas pipelines
serving customers in more than 16 states and one of the largest
underground storage systems in North America.
Approximately 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas flows the
Columbia Pipeline systems each year, according to the company's
website.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York and Eric M. Johnson in
Seattle; editing by Catherine Evans and Jeffrey Benkoe)
The blast early Thursday morning engulfed and destroyed homes and
cars, authorities said.
