4 hurt in explosion at gas plant in Washington County

HOUSTON, Pa. — Four people were injured and flown to hospitals after a Thursday night explosion in a tank at a Washington County gas plant.

The explosion was reported at 6:03 p.m., emergency dispatchers said.

The fire in the 500,000-gallon above ground storage tank at the MarkWest Energy facility in Houston was under control around 7:30 p.m.

The four people injured are employees at the plant, dispatchers said.

Eight fire companies and hazmat personnel responded to the scene, dispatchers said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

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Marathon Petroleum Corp., which owns MarkWest, released a statement:

At approximately 6 p.m. local time, the MarkWest processing plant in Houston, Pennsylvania, experienced an incident near two temporary tanks that were on-site for routine maintenance, resulting in a fire. There were injuries and four individuals have been transported to area hospitals. Local fire departments responded and the fire has been extinguished. Although the processing plant was not involved in the incident, it was shut down as a precaution and at this time there are no off-site impacts. Agency notifications have been made and an investigation into the cause of this event is underway. Our prayers are with our injured colleagues and their families.

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