Gas Pipeline Blast Rips N.J. Neighborhood

A huge natural gas pipeline exploded early Thursday into a 30-story fireball, incinerating eight apartment buildings as 1,500 residents fled for their lives from a fast moving wall of flames.

One person died from a heart attack and approximately 60 were injured when the high-pressure pipeline ruptured just after midnight with a roar that some eyewitnesses said resembled that of a tornado. Officials said that as of Thursday evening 40 people were missing.

Gov. Christine Todd Whitman said the fact that it took flames seven to 10 minutes to reach the apartment complex was the chief reason lives were saved.

The force of the blast hurled people from their beds, disintegrated cars and left a huge crater.

The fire engulfed large portions of the Durham Woods complex, a collection of two- and three-story brown-brick townhouses and garden apartments near the pipeline operated by Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. of Houston.

“I was (awakened) from my sleep. It sounded like thunder, but it just wouldn’t stop,” said Sharon Sawczak, 24, a medical secretary. “It just kept getting louder and louder and louder. Everything in our apartment was just orange. . . .

“People were just running with babies in their hands, with animals, were running out of there, leaping in their cars. It just felt like it was following you,” she said.

“It reminded me of a King Kong kind of movie where people are just running in every direction, not knowing what they are doing--just grabbing kids, people falling, tripping, running, people just scattering in every direction to just get out of there,” she added.

In the panic and the pandemonium, some people ran barefoot down railroad tracks. Others sought refuge in nearby woods.

“I ran over streams and fences and I found myself at the Shell gas station,” said Amolika Tikekar, 26. “It was bright out like daylight, but it was brighter than daylight.”

“We just thought it was like a hurricane. The fire was going around in a circle,” said Melanie Garcia, 15, who sprinted down the railroad tracks with two companions.

“I was running, running for my life,” said Chris Pennachio, a registered nurse. “My feet are so sore as I ran down the tracks. . . . It was almost like a rolling flame, rolling down the tracks. The explosion was unbelievable. It sounded like a tornado swirling and then when I looked up, it was like a towering inferno in the sky.”

Approximately 500 people took shelter in Edison High School about two miles from the blast site. Families, separated by the night of terror, staged tearful reunions in the school’s parking lot as trucks rolled up with supplies from the American Red Cross and donations of food and clothing from area residents and stores.

Authorities said scores of people were taken to area hospitals for treatment; most had minor injuries. The one confirmed fatality was a 32-year-old woman who died of a heart attack, officials said.

Whitman, who toured the scene Thursday, described what she witnessed as being like “ground zero at a nuclear blast.”

“It was hard to believe there had been anything there,” she said.

At what was left of the apartment complex, firefighters spent the day pouring water on smoldering ruins that were punctuated by still-standing brick chimneys. As the rubble cooled, search dogs were led through the scene.

The animals found no bodies, but some structures were vaporized by the explosion and intense heat, raising fears among some rescue workers that people may have been incinerated.

The immediate cause of the pipeline’s rupture was not known as multiple state and federal investigations commenced.

“My understanding is this pipeline will not be reopening until we have firm answers,” said Edison Township Mayor George Spadoro.

The pipeline is buried seven feet underground and covered by boulders, but the force of the blast tossed the boulders into the air and the flames could be seen more than 20 miles away.

Inspectors on Thursday checked the other gas pipelines that run beneath Edison, an industrial and suburban community of 67,000 people. Texas Eastern has three pipelines that run beneath that section of New Jersey.

The portion of the pipeline that blew up was installed in 1961 and was 300 yards from the apartment complex. The 36-inch-diameter pipe is the largest size of natural gas transmission line allowed in populated areas.

Company officials said the line was last inspected in 1986 and that routine maintenance had not revealed any problems.

Almost 24 hours after the blast, state officials said they were still not sure of the death toll. However, they said they expected few fatalities, with the majority of those missing eventually turning at the homes of friends and relatives.

Additional searches were planned for today.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Spadoro said. “But we need answers.”

Goldman is a Times staff writer and Olen is a special correspondent. Researcher Audrey Britton contributed to this story from New York.