Energy Transfer pipeline fire: Human remains found inside SUV that crashed, igniting fire on Deer Park-La Porte border

DEER PARK, Texas (KTRK) — Human remains were found inside the white SUV that was pulled from the site of the pipeline fire on the border of Deer Park and La Porte, police confirmed Thursday morning.

Officials believe the vehicle crashed into a valve and sparked the fire that’s been burning for days.

SkyEye was live over the scene during Eyewitness News at 7 a.m. as crews hooked up the burned SUV with a winch and dragged it away onto Spencer Highway on Thursday.

The vehicle officials believe crashed into a valve, igniting a pipeline fire near Spencer Highway in the Deer Park/La Porte area has been removed.

Investigators surrounded the vehicle and looked inside.

Harris County medical examiners recovered and removed the remains. They’ll now begin working through the identification process, which will take some time, Deer Park police say.

The fire has been burning since the crash on Monday morning, though the flames now are noticeably smaller.

Thursday also marked the first day since the incident that residents in the neighborhood closest to the pipeline are waking up in their homes.

Still, there are some homes that are too damaged to stay in, if not from the flames, from the water firefighters used to try to keep the fire from spreading.

Melted cars, melted shutters off homes and destroyed playground equipment still remain.

Meanwhile, air quality monitoring continues.

As for the fire itself, the city of Deer Park now thinks it will be out some time Thursday night, adding that crews are making necessary repairs to the infrastructure.

That work is expected to be complete by around 6 p.m., and the fire should be out two to three hours after that.

Energy Transfer owns the pipeline. Now that the vehicle has been removed, the company is able to access the grounds and work on it, according to authorities.

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