Damaged homes and questions remain one month after pipeline explosion and fire
DEER PARK, Texas (KIAH) — The signs that a towering inferno raged for days are still visible one month after the fiery and deadly incident.
On September 16, a car went over a curb in a Walmart parking lot in Deer Park, drove through a fence and a right-of-way, and crashed into a valve for a natural gas pipeline.
The explosion and fire that followed melted plastic sheds, car parts, and playground equipment and caused some nearby homes to catch fire.
Firefighters saved the homes from burning down by dousing them with their fire hoses, but a lot of that water got inside the houses.
One month later, homes sit waterlogged and singed with at least one family still waiting on an estimate from their insurance company before their recovery process can begin.
The investigation into the incident began soon after it happened, but it's still unknown what caused the driver to go on his deadly and destructive course.
"What we know right now is, Mr. Jonathan McEvoy was the only person in the vehicle," Deer Park Police Lt. Chris Brown said Tuesday. "The vehicle did drive into the Walmart parking lot, and when it approached that west parking spot, it pulled into park. The vehicle then went over the curb in a direct line to the pipeline."
Police couldn't reach McEvoy's car for three days after the crash, because of the intense heat from the burning gas from the damaged pipeline.
Once investigators were able to pull the car to an area where they could examine it, they had to use special equipment to identify McEvoy's body, because it was so badly burned.
Around that same time, the Deer Park Police Department said they were conducting a criminal investigation.
"We always want to look to see if there was criminal involvement, if there was other people involved, if there was malicious intent or something like that," Brown said Tuesday. "At this point in time, we have not identified any other people that were involved or anything that leads us to believe that there will be criminal charges."
There were also reports that McEvoy could have had a seizure causing him to drive into the pipeline, something Brown said they are investigating.
"We do not have any medical documentation," he said on Tuesday. "He was never treated by medical staff (for seizures) or anything, but we are looking into those possibilities as well. But at this point in time, it's going to be difficult to determine exactly what happened due to the case of the investigation."
