CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — While Deer Park and La Porte residents worry about the ongoing pipeline fire, some local residents are concerned that something like this can happen closer to home.
Corpus Christi has experienced incidents in just the last few years where a pipeline fire and a rupture at the gas docks in the Inner Harbor led to scary moments for residents and refinery workers alike.
Resident Gladys Marsh, who has lived along Dona Drive for 60 years said she is worried of a similar event happening here. She remembers when the tug boat hit the gas dock in the Inner Harbor four years ago.
"I couldn't believe the sound of that and it even knocked me off my feet, almost, almost," she said.
It's not practical to for the 84-year-old to move away.
"A fire that big can still travel real quick, so no one that lives in this neighborhood is safe," Marsh said. "I hate to say that, but it's true."
However, not everyone in the neighborhood is as concerned, like resident Leo Mendez who has lived on Dona Drive for 16 years.
"I worked refineries for 20 years so they're pretty safe," he said. "It's just something you have to live with if you live around here."
He said he has tried to reassure his neighbors, to no avail.
"You can't change their mind, it's gonna have a fear of something," he said. "And like I said, if you work around it, you know how they work and um how safe they are, so it really doesn't give you that much of a concern about it."
City Fire Chief and chairman of the local emergency planning committee Brandon Wade said Corpus Christi residents should be reassured that their safety comes first.
He said in an emergency first responders will go door to door to make sure that all residents and workers are safe.
"Who can we evacuate? How close to get as close as possible and try to save those lives as close as possible and go out," Wade said. "So, I think as what you saw in the incident over in La Porte is the first responders, the fire department did the same thing is responding to the emergency, assessing where it's at and then taking immediate steps to protecting lives and that's usually through evacuations in instances such as this."