DEER PARK, Texas — We're getting a closer look at the moment a vehicle hit an above-ground valve that sparked the massive pipeline fire in Deer Park that's been burning since Monday morning.
A transportation company's work vehicle inadvertently caught the crash and explosion from across the street.
Devin Boone is a dispatcher with Total Marine Transportation based in Greenspoint.
On Monday morning, one of Boone's drivers was making a routine stop at a business in La Porte, across the street from Wal-Mart.
The transport van parked in front of the business and the driver went inside, followed by the passenger. The van's cameras kept rolling.
"Once you see the red truck pass, that's when you see the car barreling toward the pipeline," Boone said.
And then suddenly, flames shoot hundreds of feet into the air.
Officials said Monday, the white vehicle first drove through a fence and then ran into the liquid natural gas pipeline's above-ground valve.
"Very high rate of speed," Boone said. "I won't go so far as saying it was deliberate, but I will say it looked like they were going 65 to 70 miles per hour."
Boone's driver and passenger ran out of the building after they heard the blast and tried to make it into the van, but couldn't.
"Said it was simply too hot, so she took the crew member with her and she ran away from the explosion," Boone said.
The van was left behind, across the street from the fire.
"When we were finally able to retrieve the vehicle, the plastic on the outside had been melted, the air vents were melted so a lot of the components had been compromised because of the heat," Boone said.
When KHOU 11's Matt Dougherty saw the van in person Tuesday, the exterior was covered in soot and plastic parts on the exterior were damaged.
Inside, the plastic overhead air vents are melted, which gives a sense of how hot the fire was even at a distance.
What you don't see in the video is anyone getting out of the vehicle that crashed into the valve.
It remains at the site.
Neither the City of Deer Park, or police, are giving any information about who they think was behind the wheel of that white SUV, or if the driver survived.
