Hundreds evacuated, four injured in blast at natural gas plant near Tri-Cities
Mar 31, 2014, 1:57 PM | Updated: 2:03 pm
A natural gas plant, south of Tri-Cities, Washington is still off limits after an explosion and fire Monday morning injured four people.
The blast was heard and felt several miles away from the Williams Northwest Pipeline plant, in Plymouth, Wash., not far from I-82 and the Columbia River.
One employee suffered burns and the condition of the other injured is not known.
The facility was evacuated after the 8:22 a.m. explosion at the plant, where liquefied natural gas is converted into vapor and stored.
State inspectors are headed to the scene, but the plant remains off limits for safety reasons.
“We won’t be doing anything until we get the OK,” said David Lykken, director of pipeline safety for the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
A plant spokeswoman said it’s too early to determine the extent of the damage or how it happened.
“That particular segment of the plant will be shut down until we fully understand the root cause of this explosion,” Lykken said.
An initial review of records showed no problems with the plant, which the state has been inspecting since 2001, according to Lykken.
A Benton County Emergency Operations spokeswoman, Carol Cimrhakl said people in a two-mile radius of the plant were told to leave the area and move to fairgrounds in Hermiston, Oregon.
