4 hurt in natural gas plant explosion in Washington County

Four people were flown from a Washington County tank explosion at a natural gas processing plant.

The four were flown to Pittsburgh hospitals for treatment of burns.

Washington County 911 said the four were burned in the blast just after 6 p.m. at the MarkWest facility in Chartiers Township at 800 Western Ave. near the community of Houston.

There was no evacuation and the resulting fire was put out, the 911 supervisor said.

The blast involved a chemical used in natural gas processing.

The explosion involved at least one tank holding 14,000 gallons of the processing chemical, according to 911.

According to the MarkWest web site, MarkWest, a wholly owned subsidiary of MPLX LP. It is owned by Marathon Petroleum Co.

MarkWest gathers, processes and transports natural gas as well as transportation and storage of chemicals related to fracking.

Marathon corporate spokesman Jamal Kheiry said in a statement to the Tribune-Review that the incident happened near “two temporary tanks that were onsite for routine maintenance.”

The blast resulted in a fire.

“Although the processing plant was not involved in the incident, it was shut down as a precaution and at this time there are no offsite impacts,” Kheiry said. “Agency notifications have been made, and an investigation into the cause of this event is underway.

“Our prayers are with our injured colleagues and their families,” Kheiry said.

Chuck Biedka is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chuck at 724-226-4711, cbiedka@tribweb.com or via Twitter @ChuckBiedka.