Athens County emergency officials have provided further details about the major gas-line explosion near the Athens-Morgan county line Wednesday morning. In a release issued at 10:34 a.m.,
Ron Lucas, Jr., public information officer for the Athens County Emergency Operations Center, said that the gas-line rupture and explosion caught one home and barn on fire, but that no one was home at the time.
And at 10:56 a.m., emergency personnel broadcasting on a police frequency reported that the gas-line fire "had been contained."
Witnesses had described flames shooting hundreds of feet into the air as a result of the explosion on the Tennessee Gas interstate line. Lucas confirmed that one individual had been transported to O'Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens as a result of the explosion and fire, and was treated for respiratory symptoms.
Lucas said the gas line exploded at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday near the border between Athens and Morgan counties. It wasn't clear which county was the site, however, or whether the fire extended into both. Tennessee Gas Pipeline reported the explosion occurred at 9500 Taylor Road, and that their employees had turned off valves to control the fire.
Scanner reports suggested the gas-line rupture and explosion occurred near the intersection of Hooper Ridge Road and Robinson Ridge Road in northeast Ames Township. Around 9:20 a.m. local scanner traffic indicated that tanker trucks had been dispatched to the area.
A law-enforcement scanner update at 9:50 a.m. reported that a 36-inch Tennessee Gas pipeline had ruptured and exploded. The scanner update said that a 12-mile stretch of pipeline had been isolated and cut off, and gas within that stretch was being allowed to burn itself out.
In an earlier news release, Lucas said that if county residents have emergencies that are not related to this gas-line incident, they should call 911, but refrain from contacting 911 to report the gas-line explosion.
At 9:40 a.m. a producer for CNN phoned
The Athens NEWS wanting information about the pipeline rupture, and said that news outlets were on their way from Columbus.
In his second news release, Lucas said that Ohio Rt. 329, near the explosion area, had been closed to traffic indefinitely.
