Flames Shoot From Suburban Oil Pipeline in Dramatic Footage

Residents of a Houston suburb have been evacuated with major roads and businesses shut down after an oil pipeline caught fire just before 10 a.m. in the areas of Deer Park and La Porte, TX on Monday. The blaze was still ongoing by afternoon, with officials reporting that it could be Tuesday before the fire is contained.

The local Spencer Highway was closed in both directions on Monday, with the areas surrounding a nearby Walmart and H-E-B grocery store blocked off to traffic. More than 700 customers in the area were likewise without power, with evacuated residents unable to return to their homes due to the heat emanating from the flames.

One firefighter was injured and treated for minor injuries as emergency personnel struggled to contain the heavy flames, which could be seen shooting hundreds of feet into the air in harrowing video circulating online.

"The fire is contained within a set perimeter, but it will take several hours for the product to burn off,” said Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton Jr. in a statement.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation, however oil and gas expert Bob Cavnar told Click2Houston that the fire may have been caused by a crude line, and possibly the result of a mechanical failure.

"The way the fire looks, the smoke, it looks like a product or a crude line and not natural gas. Natural gas doesn’t tend to burn that dirty," Cavnar said. "They should be able to shut the pipeline off. I’m not sure why it’s been going this long unless they’re having a hard time getting to terminal valves."

Energy Transfer, the company that owns the pipeline, said that the fire, involving a 20-inch natural gas liquids pipeline, occurred at a valve station.

"We experienced an incident this morning in La Porte, Texas, at a valve station along Spencer Highway for a 20-inch natural gas liquids line that resulted in a fire," read the statement, via KHOU 11 News . There are no reports of injuries at this time. The LaPorte Fire Department is on the scene and has evacuated all homes and businesses within a half mile of the incident site. The line has been isolated so that the residual product in the line can safely burn itself out."

"We have no timeline at this point on how long that process will take, but we are working closely with local authorities," the statement continued. "We are aware of early reports indicating that an unknown passenger car entered our right-of-way and struck the value location. Air monitoring equipment is in the process of being set up in the area. We will continue to release details as they become available."