ARNAUDVILLE, L.a. — A voluntary evacuation order is still in place as first responders remained at the scene of Wednesday's natural gas well blowout early Thursday morning and into the afternoon — flames still burning.
According to state police, Joe Kidder and Lee Roy Bourque roads will remain blocked off from travel until further notice as work to put out the fire and investigations into its cause continue. At last check, troopers have no answers as to the root cause of the explosion. Termo is the company operating the well.
"Once everything is down, once the fire is down, once the well is capped, maybe they can go in and figure out what exactly happened," said Trooper Derek Senegal, public information officer for State Police Troop D. "But because of the fire it's gonna destroy a lot of whatever is out there so right now, this has been burning for what, I'd say a day or so, so there's just a lot of heat out there."
Troopers told KATC it is unclear how long it could be until the situation is resolved because of the vastness of the fire.
"It could be several more days, it could be a week, it's just unknown of how this thing is gonna turn out," Senegal said. "So they're just gonna do the best they can until they can this thing resolved. It could drag on a while."
KATC will keep you updated with more information as it becomes available.
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