Hundreds evacuate small Washington town after industrial explosion

Hundreds of people were being evacuated from Plymouth, Wash., a small town in southern Washington after an explosion and fire Monday morning at a natural gas processing facility left at least four people injured, according to the local sheriff.

The blast, which brought reports of a fireball at least 30 feet high, happened around 8:20 a.m. at a facility owned by Williams, a Tulsa, Okla.-based energy company, Benton County Sheriff Steve Keane told the Los Angeles Times.

At least one of those injured was a worker, said Keane, who didn’t have information on the victims’ conditions.

“At this point, the fire is out,” Keane said.

The blast sent debris and metal shrapnel into a 1.2 billion-cubic-feet liquefied petroleum storage tank that may have been half-full, Keane said, citing a preliminary account from officials on the scene.

The tank began to leak, and fumes could be smelled in the area, Keane said.

The plant is about 2.5 miles west of Plymouth, Wash., and Keane said officials were evacuating the town’s 300 to 400 residents just across the Columbia River into Umatilla, Ore., just to be safe.

Keane didn’t know the cause of the blast and said there has not been an assessment of the damage at the plant.