Fire at Natural Gas Facility in Texas – Visible From Space
Fire at Enterprise Products facility in Mont Belvieu, Texas, February 8, 2011. Photo credit: Reuters / Richard Carson.
There’s been an explosion and fire at a natural gas storage and processing facility in Mont Belvieu, Texas, about 35 miles east of Houston. No injuries have been reported [UPDATE 2/10/11 9:30ET – one worker confirmed dead] but a massive fire and series of blasts have rocked the area. The cause is apparently a failure of “one or more” pipelines that deliver natural gas liquids to the processing plant.
This MODIS / Aqua satellite image taken shortly after yesterday afternoon’s explosion shows the fire as a bright orange spot, with a plume of brown smoke apparently trailing away to the north:
Fire visible as orange spot on this low-resolution NASA/MODIS satellite image taken shortly after the explosion.