By Jay Jordan and Julian Gill
Houston Chronicle
LIBERTY COUNTY, Texas — Travis Yust said he was standing about 100 feet from his family’s oil tanks when they burst into flames on Tuesday in Liberty County, prompting a large emergency response that forced nearby residents to shelter in place.
Yust said his father owns the tanks for the family’s small independent oil company, which produces about one to four barrels a day. The loss was devastating, he said.
“We lost a lot of oil,” Yust told Chron.com on Wednesday. “It will take us a year to bounce back from this. All of our wells will remain down until we can clean up and remove all of the rubble....then we will have to bring in new storage tanks. This is going to hurt us for a long time to come.”
The fire was on property along County Road 2018 in Liberty County. Yust captured the large flames in a drone video on Facebook.
One tank caught fire and exploded, igniting a second nearby tank, according to Liberty County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Ken DeFoor.
An official cause has not been determined, but Yust speculated that an electrical shortage ignited gas fumes.