A bulldozer hit a natural gas pipeline Saturday morning southwest of Cheyenne, killing the operator and sending flames hundreds of feet in the air. The flames were visible at least several miles away.
Gerry Luce with the Laramie County (Wyoming) Sheriff’s Office identified the worker as Bobby Ray Owens Jr., 52, of Louisiana.
Owens worked for Associated Pipe Line Contractors Inc. of Houston, according to Luce.
The bulldozer struck the 36-inch pipeline about 9:30 a.m. The pipeline is buried on the Duck Creek Ranch near the Colorado border.
“It’s a very unfortunate incident, and we hate to see any loss of life,” said Richard Wheatley, manager of media relations for El Paso Corp., a parent company of Wyoming Interstate Co.
Owens was doing construction work on the Rockies Express Pipeline that, when completed, will cost $4.4 billion and stretch for 1,600 miles, carrying gas from central Wyoming to markets in the Midwest, said Helen Wells, a spokeswoman for Kinder Morgan Energy Partners in Lakewood.
The damaged pipeline provides service to customers in Wyoming and the Front Range, officials said.
“The impact (on service) will be minimal,” Wheatley said.
The company’s pipeline has existed since the early 1980s, said Lisa Marshall, spokeswoman for El Paso Corp. in Houston.
She did not have information about the depth at which the pipeline is buried.
Marshall said general protocol calls for companies to call before they start digging in a pipeline area and to use maps that show where pipelines are located.
Repairing the pipeline likely will take about 24 hours after the investigation is complete, Marshall said.
Luce said state and federal investigators were still on the scene at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Northern Colorado firefighters and deputies with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office helped battle the morning blaze along with fire, police and rescue crews from Wyoming.
“It was handled very quickly,” Wheatley said.
Brian Martin, assistant managing editor of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle in Cheyenne, said he saw the flames from his house several miles away. He estimated that they were 300 feet high. He described them as bright orange and said thin, gray smoke was evident.
Fire crews responded from Laramie County, F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne and Larimer County.
No other injuries were reported.
The Rockies Express Pipeline is a joint venture involving Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Sempra Energy and Conoco Phillips.
Investigators with Kinder Morgan are investigating the fire, and construction work along the 192-mile segment has been halted, officials said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Annette Espinoza can be reached at 303-954-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com.
