A pipeline explosion in a rural northwestern Oklahoma town sent a fireball hundreds of feet into the air, and emergency responders on Wednesday were still at the scene, trying to extinguish the flames.
Deputy Cliff Brinson with the Harper County Sheriff's Department said the blast and fire sounded like the roar of jet engines and that the flames have reached two football field lengths into the sky, CBS reported.
Nobody's been injured, but residents living two miles away from the scene have been evacuated.
Northern Natural Pipeline engineers are still trying to cut the flow of natural gas. The explosion occurred Tuesday evening, but a day later, the fire was still raging.
One commenter at the local KSN television news site said in an early Wednesday morning Internet post: "We are seeing a glow from Lewis, Kansas."
Comment: The uploader on youtube wrote this about the explosion:
A huge explosion tore through a pipeline in Harper, Oklahoma, late on October 8, sparking a fire that could be seen up to 70 miles away. Firefighters and emergency crews from surrounding counties responded. Residents as far away as southern Kansas reported seeing flames. Credit: Spencer Albracht.
Meteorite attraction? Perhaps but how and why? Are you implying that the pipeline, NG in this case, is emitting a negative charge like some chemical 'smoke' stacks? Just asking, for if so, then how far underground before they are safe, ie not emitting a charge to the atmosphere that these meteorites find so irresistible? Most of these are already buried underground to start, or so I think, with only transit stations or substations, relief values or whatever that pop up every so often, usual in some farmers field. Most are rather old, so could it be a leak that finds some sort of EM match as a spark?