A fire that resulted from a rupture on Williams’ Mid-America (liquids) Pipeline in a rural area north of Kansas City, MO Tuesday was brought under control and was essentially out by the end of the day, company officials said.

No injuries resulted from the line break, which occurred on a 10-inch diameter section of the line that carries ethane and propane from Conway, KS, into Iowa City, IO, and central Illinois. The pipe, built in 1970, is owned and operated by Mid-America Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Tulsa, OK-based Williams.

The company’s operations control center in Tulsa, which monitors line flow and pumping pressures around the clock, detected a low-pressure alarm around noon Tuesday. The company initiated its emergency response plan, shutting down pumps and closing block valves to isolate a 10.5 mile segment of line. More than 20 pipeline workers and maintenance contractors were on site, preparing to investigate and examine the pipe for repairs. The cause of the line break was not immediately known.

Williams’ spokesman Kelly Swan said, “The situation is under control and there is no threat to nearby communities or the environment. We’re still not sure what caused the line break, but the line has actively been maintained and was internally inspected in 1995 using a high-tech, high-resolution instrument that checks for anything out of the ordinary.”

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