More than 10,000 people are evacuated from rural Idaho town after gas line explodes
- Canyon County Sheriff’s spokesman Joe Decker said he did not yet know if any injuries had been reported in connection with the explosion in Middleton.
- The sheriff said people within a 4-mile radius of the blast — including the town of 10,600 — were ordered to evacuate while police assessed the situation
- The evacuation order was lifted a short time later after the sheriff confirmed that the gas to the line had been turned off, and residents were told to ‘shelter in place’
An Idaho town of about 10,000 people evacuated residents Thursday after a gas line exploded at a nearby intersection.
As a result, authorities ordered evacuations for most of the town of Middleton – with local sheriffs later saying they did not yet know if any injuries had been reported in connection with the explosion.
Canyon County Sheriff’s spokesman Joe Decker said people within a 4-mile radius of the explosion — which includes the small town — were ordered to evacuate as authorities directed motorists away from the then-risky area for about an hour.
The order has since been lifted – lifted after police confirmed that the petrol line had been switched off at around 11.40am. At that stage, residents in the town of 10,6000 were advised to ‘shelter in place’ instead.
Footage shows the explosion as it happened – which is believed to have caused a series of booms to reverberate for several kilometres. A number of elementary schools were also in the area but were not evacuated and have since resumed classes, instructors said.
Social media accounts for the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office alerted residents when it happened — as smoke could still be seen billowing from the rural road where the explosion occurred.
“EVACUATION NOTICE IN MIDDLETON,” the department’s initial warning, broadcast at 11:20 a.m. local time, read — before revealing officers were “working to evacuate anyone within a 4-mile radius of Purple Sage Road and Duff Lane.”