Another week, another explosion

MIDLAND – A natural gas pipeline exploded last week, resulting in the death of Bud Taylor, a Navitas Midstreams Partners employee, and injuring six others- four workers, who were airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock, and two firefighters who were taken to a Midland hospital. Sara Hughes, a company spokeswoman, said Kinder Morgan’s 12-inch El Paso Natural Gas pipeline exploded Wednesday, but it appeared that another company’s nearby pipeline exploded before the El Paso line. According to Elana Ladd, Public Information officer for the City of Midland, they first received the call about the explosion at 11:30 a.m. Ladd says that three explosions occurred within several feet from each other, a large explosion, a medium explosion, and a small explosion. The cause of the leak and explosion, which breached lines operated by Navitas and Kinder Morgan Inc. that fed natural gas processing facilities in the area, remains under investigation.