The massive fire, believed to have started when a car ran into a pipeline before 10 a.m. near Spencer Highway and East Meadow Drive, was still burning more than 12 hours later.
The flames were so hot that the siding on homes a quarter mile away was melting.
ORIGINAL STORY: Deer Park pipeline burnoff estimated to last through early Tuesday morning, company says
Firefighters went door to door to evacuate, but Emily Cruz did not have to be told.
"We're packing. We're ready to go because it's too hot," Cruz said.
Power was out in her neighborhood south of Spencer Highway, which was in the evacuation zone. One firefighter called it the "blast zone."
Uncertainty ruled the day.
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"I was like, 'We gotta go. We cannot stay here,'" one woman said. "It was so close. It was shaking. It freaked me out."
Flames shot up from the ground and scorched everything around them. Firefighters turned their attention to the nearby homes on East Meadow Drive, dousing them with water to prevent further damage.
"I can just imagine how much damage we'll have with smoke because we're too close to it," another woman said.
The pipeline owner, Energy Transfer, identified the burning substance as liquid natural gas, intending to isolate the fire and let it burn itself. This is a slow process, and Makiya Mitchell and her family did not want to stay to see it.
"My sister is pregnant, and we don't want to breathe in the air," Mitchell told ABC13.
Harris County Pollution Control deployed emergency air monitors. A spokesperson with the City of Deer Park said there had been no air quality issues to report.
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