A nine-man crew was conducting work on the Colonial Pipeline system in Shelby County at the time of the explosion, according to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley. The seven injured workers were taken to Birmingham hospitals by helicopter and ambulance, Bentley told WBRC-TV in a live interview Monday evening. The explosion on the Colonial Pipeline occurred after a contract crew working on the line in Alabama struck it with an industrial digger, the company said late on Monday. US benchmark gasoline futures have spiked by 11 per cent overnight to $1.57 a gallon after an explosion on the Colonial Pipeline, the main conduit carrying fuel from the refining hub on the US Gulf coast to markets in the east. Colonial was working to restart a section of pipeline damaged after its biggest leak of gasoline in nearly two decades on Sept. 9, which released as much as 8,000 barrels (336,000 gallons) of gasoline in Shelby County. Colonial Pipeline, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, transports more than 100 million gallons of products daily to markets between Houston and New York City, serving more than 50 million people, it says on its website.
One person is killed and at least five others injured following an explosion and fire along one of Colonial Pipeline's conduits in rural Alabama (US), the second incident on this section of the line in less than two months. One pipeline reopened this evening while a second is expected to working by Saturday.