Officials Identify 2 Killed in Gas Pipeline Blast

Associated Press

LUBBOCK, Texas -- Officials have released the names of two men killed when a natural gas pipeline exploded near the Texas-Oklahoma line.

Lipscomb County Sheriff James Robertson said Wednesday 32-year-old Steven Douglas Odell and 44-year-old Johnnie Mike Renner died when a bulldozer hit a pipeline near Darrouzett in the Panhandle on Tuesday. Both men are from Pampa.

One person was hospitalized after the blast, but Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City refused to disclose a condition Wednesday. Two others were treated at the scene.

The bulldozer crew was working for an oil services company when it hit the line Tuesday afternoon. The natural gas explosion was the second in as many days in Texas; another exploded after being struck in Cleburne, south of Dallas, on Monday. One person was killed in that blast.