Colonial Pipeline: Approximately 200 people responding to explosion site

SHELBY COUNTY, AL (WBRC) - Colonial Pipeline says it's going to be a few days before we will have any idea how long it will take to recover from this explosion.

"As a matter of fact, we have about 200 people that are responding now. They're on site and we still have resources, people and equipment coming into the area," said Gerald Beck, Colonial Pipeline Incident Commander.

Several agencies and crews are already working around the clock in Shelby County. Meanwhile, in the back of their minds are the victims and survivors.

"My heart goes out. Condolences to the fatality victim, which we will not identify at this time," said Shelby County Sheriff John Samaniego.

As for those hurt, Colonial Pipeline officials are keeping that information confidential. They have confirmed that a nine-person crew was working on the pipeline when it was hit with a track hoe.

Within moments of the explosion, Samaniego says fire departments from surrounding areas were already on the road, headed to the disaster site.

"Hats off to all the fire entities and emergency rescue [teams] that responded and assisted in this accident," said Samaniego.

"You know these are the guys that go to the flames, you know they don't run from it, they go to it," said Helena Mayor Mark Hall.

This sort of multi-agency response combined with a special alert system is what they say saved lives.

"Our first priority as an initial response of our first responders was to check for life and injury and to save lives and they did a tremendous job in that," said Hall.

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