Blaze at Eagle Ford site injures 3

Fire: explosion at saltwater disposal site injures three

Pearsall Volunteer Fire Department

Luke Johnson

 20 January 2012 21:01 GMT

Three people were injured when a storage tank at a saltwater disposal facility in South Texas caught fire after an explosion on Thursday.

The explosion occurred around 5:30 pm at a site operated by a company called High Roller Wells in Pearsall, Texas, about 50 miles south-west of San Antonio in an area sitting atop the Eagle Ford shale.

According to preliminary information provided to inspectors at the Texas Railroad Commission, the fire started shortly after a truck unloaded saltwater with “a skim of condensate (liquid hydrocarbons)” into a collection tank.

“Welders were working nearby and sparks from the welding may have ignited vapours around the storage tank, causing the explosion,” Commission spokeswoman Ramona Nye said…

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