Car crash causes pipeline explosion in NW Houston

Last night in northwest Houston, a car a car hit a natural gas pipeline meter station, causing the line to explode — and the people involved in the accident walked away uninjured. And we thought that kind of thing only happened in the movies.

The accident happened near Kuykendahl and FM 1960 at about 7:15 p.m. Police said two cars collided, which caused one to flip over a fence and crash into the meter station. The resulting explosion sent flames 70 feet in the air. "It looked like daylight from 1960," Lt. David Paige with the Ponderosa Fire Department told KTRK. "There was a roar and there was extremely heavy fire, high pressure fire."

The crash and fire also damaged power lines, knocking out electricity to about 3,600 customers in the area; the lines were repaired within a couple of hours, and the pipeline fire was stopped later. No one was evacuated.