(Source: Commercial Appeal, The)
JACKSON - Federal safety inspectors were collecting information Thursday, one day after a failed pressure test on a new gas pipeline caused an explosion that killed one worker and critically injured three others in rural south Mississippi.
James Lee Candler, 40, of Sulphur, La., was killed in the explosion about 4 p.m. Wednesday on a Smith County road just south of Sylvarena, Coroner Billy Allen said.
Allen said Candler likely died of head trauma, though an autopsy was planned. The blast occurred on part of the Midcontinent Express pipeline.
Spokesmen for the National Transportation Safety Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed the agencies had sent officials to gather data for a possible investigation into the blast.
The Midcontinent Express pipeline is a 507-mile natural gas system that extends from the southeast corner of Oklahoma, across northeast Texas, northern Louisiana, central Mississippi and into Alabama. It is owned by Midcontinent Express Pipeline LLC, a joint venture between Houston, Texas-based Kinder Morgan Inc. and Dallas- based Energy Transfer Partners, LP.
More than 5,000 workers are building the pipeline, the company said on its Web site. Kinder Morgan owns or operates more than 35,000 miles of pipelines and 170 terminals in North America.
"We didn't have a pipeline explosion. This is a section of line that was not in service and it was being pressure tested to be put into service. When they do a pressure test they use nitrogen," said Joe Hollier, a spokesman for Kinder Morgan.
Hollier said the contractors at the scene were Beckville, Texas- based Grand Bluff Construction Co. and Priority Energy. He said Priority Energy was conducting the test.
Hollier said he did not know where Priority Energy was headquartered.
Three medical helicopters lifted the critically injured from the scene, said Jim Pollard, a spokesman for AMR ambulance service. All three were taken to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, about 60 miles northwest of the blast.
Two had life-threatening injuries and the third was in stable condition Wednesday, Pollard said.
The pipeline will be in service on Aug. 1, and Hollier said the project is on schedule.
Originally published by Associated Press .
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