A portion of a northern Ontario highway was closed for several hours early Sunday after a natural gas pipeline exploded in a massive fireball.

No one was injured in the explosion, which occurred around 11 p.m. Saturday about 170 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

The town of Beardmore, Ont., was partially evacuated for about an hour as Ontario Provincial Police and emergency crews fought to contain the fire and shut off the gas. Highway 11 was closed in the area until about 8 a.m. Residents have since returned to their homes.

Staff-Sgt. Carl Pettigrew of the OPP's Greenstone detachment said it was a "substantial blast," which occurred about two kilometres from the nearest home.

The remote location of the fire made it difficult to put out, Pettigrew said.

"The residents here can feel the heat in their homes from the fire," Pettigrew told CTV News Channel from Beardmore early Sunday, before the fire was under control. "It was a large fireball."

Pettigrew said police do not know what caused the blast, but they will consider foul play if evidence leads them in that direction.

"That is not what we think at this point," he said.

Trans Canada is the company responsbile for the pipeline, which runs 14,000 kilometres from Alberta to Quebec.

The Transportation Safety Board, an independent agency that probes marine, pipeline, railway and aviation accidents, has sent a team to investigate.