An oil pipeline operated by Harvest Midstream Co. exploded at about 2 p.m. Tuesday near La Boca in northeast San Juan County, N.M., sending flames at least 100 feet into the air and igniting a wildland fire roughly half a mile south of the Colorado state line.

The blast occurred on the Harvest system in the La Boca area, near County Road 4046, according to Harvest Midstream spokesman Jerrod T. Jones. Crews isolated the line and stopped gas flow to the affected segment.

"Crews responded, the flow of gas to this portion of the system was stopped, and crews continue to coordinate with first responders as they address conditions in the surrounding area," Jones said in a statement Tuesday night.

The cause remains unknown. Jones reported no injuries and said all crew members were accounted for.

How large was the fire?

Witnesses described a column of flame visible for miles. Dave Valdez, who lives on County Road 4046, was in his garage when the explosion hit.

"It wasn't just a pop; it sounded like somebody just turned on an F-16 right next to me and left it running," Valdez said. "I felt the ground shake a little bit right before my electricity went off."

Valdez estimated the flames reached 150 feet or more and estimated the blast site a half mile to three-quarters of a mile south of his home. A friend working in oil and gas told him the rupture likely released gas at 400 to 500 pounds of pressure. The intense flame and roar lasted about 45 minutes, with a lower-level flame visible for roughly two hours total.

Marzine Smith, driving north toward Ignacio, Colo., saw the fire in her rear-view mirror on Colorado Highway 172.

"You see the big fire going up like 200, 300 feet," Smith said. "It was massive." She counted two or three ambulances heading south toward the scene.

What is the response status?

Los Pinos Fire Protection District responded and provided mutual aid to San Juan County under a cross-border agreement.

"Los Pinos works in mutual aid to us. We did send crews," San Juan County spokesman Devin Neeley said. "This is a pipeline fire; it has been shut in and the surrounding wildland fire is smoldering."

Firefighters, ambulances and law enforcement staged along dirt roads at a distance from the burning segment. As of 5:30 p.m. local time, residents near Road 4046 had received no official word on the cause. Smith said the fire posed no immediate threat to her home.

The incident adds to the operational record of the San Juan basin's midstream infrastructure, where Harvest Midstream runs gathering systems serving producers across the Four Corners region. Tuesday's failure forced an unplanned shut-in of one gas line segment, though the operator has not disclosed the line's throughput or the duration of the outage.

Watch items: Harvest Midstream's investigation into the failure cause, the line's return-to-service timeline, and any regulatory response from New Mexico authorities.