Fire in natural gas tank at St. Elmo, Illinois plant

By Ann Rubin

KSDK -- Two employees were injured Wednesday afternoon following an explosion and fire at a natural gas company. It happened at the Natural Gas Pipeline Company (NGPL) of America Station, located 206 six miles north of St. Elmo, in Fayette County, Illinois.

The fire broke out around 1 p.m. while welding was being done on an above-ground product storage tank.

Among the first to arrive on scene was St. Elmo Police Chief Ken Thomason.

"About that time a couple huge explosions happened, earth-shaking type explosions," Thomason said. "And I turned around and the smoke was just billowing real big."

Investigators said a 10,000-gallon tank ignited. The tank was supposed to be empty, except for a small amount of waste water and oil. Company officials are not sure what went wrong. The fire quickly spread, igniting a second smaller tank as well.

"Pretty scary feeling there for a couple seconds. My first thought was, 'I just hope the guys are okay,'" Thomason said.

Two NGPL employees were injured and rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile firefighters used foam to put out the flames.

Emergency crews had the fire contained within about an hour. They said they've been well trained for a situation like this. In fact, many of them had been here training within the last two weeks and some of them had been here as recently as Tuesday.

"It just so happens that yesterday we had a meeting with natural gas here," Sheriff Aaron Lay of the Fayatte County Sheriff's Department. "I was included in the meeting. And we went over the very things that we did today so I think it went well."

The Environmental Protection Agency was on site Wednesday evening. And the company says they will also conduct their own investigation into what happened. The fire was eventually contained and no evacuations were necessary.