Two pipeline explosions within two days, hundreds of miles apart, but eerily similar. As chance would have it, they’re also connected by one family. Two brothers, both firefighters, were both called into fight the fires following the explosions.
Bono, Texas explosion and fire from KTVT-TV.
Patrick Ellis has spent four years as a volunteer firefighter in the small Johnson County town of Bono. “We do serve the communities, and do the best we can to take care of the public.”
He was one of numerous firefighters called to the pipeline explosion, Monday that sent flames shooting high into the sky and claimed the life of a utility worker who was digging holes to install new power lines. “They had to shut the valve off before we could actually go in and everything,” Ellis explained, “There’s really not a whole lot you can do.”
Just one day later Ellis’ older brother, Michael, found himself in a similar situation 460 miles away, in the Texas panhandle. “We had one big fireball approximately 50-75 feet in the air.” Michael Ellis, the Assistant Fire Chief in Booker, Texas, explained. ” We discovered a dossier had hit a gas line.”
The assistant chief was one of the first on the scene of the explosion in Darrouzett. “A lot of mixed emotions went through my head,” he said, “First thing that went through my head — how many people do we have? How many causalities?”
