Posted on 04/27/2007 8:29:59 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
(Original story - posted April 27, 2007, 6:00pm CDT)
Just before noon Friday, lightning struck the Wynnewood Oil Refinery in Garvin county. Officials say it hit a large storage tank holding 25,000 barrels of light oil, sparking a large explosion. KTEN's Andrea Kurys was on the scene.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol officials say two storms hit Wynnewood in less than an hour. Though they were small, they both produced giant lightning bolts.
The explosion blew the roof of the barrel sky-high. Smoke could be seen for miles away. Luckily though, no one was injured.
An emergency response team from the refinery was immediately on scene, as well as OHP officials, the Wynnewood police and fire departments and the Garvin County Sheriff's office. The oil fire was contained in under an hour, but continued to burn all day.
Everyone at the refinery was evacuated as a precaution. OHP Trooper Doug George: "We've currently shut down this portion of US 77. Of course, it includes the entire refinery section here from any though traffic. Only traffic coming out of the refinery are emergency crews going into the refinery."
Twelve hours later, highways were still shut down. Officials were in the process of using a thermal imaging device to detect any hot spots.
It turns out no one had to be evacuated from the town of Wynnewood, though crews were on stand-by in case the fire got out of hand.
Where is Wynnewood in Oklahoma? Just curious to see if I could step outside and see flames or not.
Wynnewood (pronounced Winnie-wood), is about 1hr south of OKC, just east of I-35.
Gas prices just jumped 20 cents a gallon.
Ok, I’m about 1.25-1.5 hours south of OKC but am about 35 miles west of I-35, so Wynnewood is just north of Pauls Valley?
Hopefully there won’t be any injured or dead.
Prayers for the workers.
It’s about 10-15mi south of Pauls Valley. IIRC, the refinery is on the SE side of town.
Here’s this afternoon’s story from KOCO5-OKC, with a video link (on the right) actually showing the initial explosion, which was captured by their stormchasing crew. >>>
http://www.koco.com/news/13211973/detail.html
Used to belong to Kerr McGee.
It;s did not used to be all that big.
Ping
Gaszooks, it has been years since I thought of some old friends who came from Pauls Valley...
David, if you are out there, and remember my Mother, Torchey... Give me a shout!
Every refinery in the good old USA is really old.
It still is not. At 54,000 BPD it is smaller than average by quite a bit.
Capacity of Operable Petroleum Refineries by State as of January 1, 2006
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/refinery_capacity_data/historical/2006/table3.pdf
Creator hates Oil and Global Warming
Update >>>
April 28, 2007 01:19 am
Wynnewood inferno: Fire scorches refinery
Massive fire started by lightning strike
By Jeff Shultz
PAULS VALLEY DAILY DEMOCRAT (PAULS VALLEY, Okla.)
PAULS VALLEY, Okla. — Wynnewood Refinery officials had to deal with two massive tank fires just hours after believing the first fire was under control.
The fire caused a huge explosion at around 8:30 Friday night, causing many residents in the area to flee their homes in fear of the fire spreading after highly flammable liquid spilled out of a tank.
“Right now the fire is contained to our property only,” said Mike Hampton, a spokesperson for the Wynnewood Refinery. “The fire has spread to the base of a nearby tank, but that tank is not on fire. We’re very concerned about it, though.”
However, moments later the second tank went up in flames in a second explosion, which was felt as far away as Sulphur, according to some reports.
The fire did not force Wynnewood officials to order an evacuation of the area or town, though many residents fled to safer ground on their own. All employees of the plant were ordered to evacuate the refinery.
A lightning strike from a Friday morning thunderstorm is believed to be the culprit in starting the tank fire, Hancock said.
Earlier Friday Hancock described the fire to be “typical” in nature.
“The biggest threat from a fire like this is if the walls of the tank collapse it could spill what is being stored in the tank,” he said Friday afternoon.
Hampton said the tank was storing a “gasoline component” at the time of the lightning strike.
At that time Hancock said the tank’s water cooling system looked like it was working in preventing the walls of the tank from collapsing.
“A tank fire is a pesky fire,” Hancock later said. “You think you’ve got it under control and then it will flare up again.”
That is exactly what happened hours after firefighters had worked to put out the original blaze.
“The fire started flaring up again causing the wall above the liquid level of the tank to collapse inward on the tank,” he said Friday night.
Hancock said the flare up could have been caused by gasoline splashing out of the tank’s inner wall.
The huge blaze brought firefighters and equipment from as far away as Tulsa and Ardmore to battle the inferno.
Refinery firefighters were also joined by the Wynnewood, Davis and Pauls Valley fire departments.
This was the second fire at the Wynnewood Refinery in less than a year. Last May an explosion in a gasoline producing unit took days to burn out and caused the evacuation of several residents living near the plant.
There were no injuries reported as a result of the two fires.
http://www.tuttletimes.com/statenews/cnhinsall_story_118011910.html
Topo map showing Wynnewood and the refinery
Aerial photo showing the entire refinery -- including the "tank farms".
You can see that the tanks are of the "floating lid" type -- where the cover of the tank actually floats on the contents. In thei=ory, thiat keeps gas from accumulating atop the oil. If they do manage to explode, those loose lids can become giant "Frisbees"...
Extra “i”s, etc are provided as a bonus this morning... ‘-)
Hey! That’s my stuff! Oh, great. Tiny checks for me 2 months from now. Sorry to hear it, tho.
Giant flying cement saucers weighing many tons are a scary sight to behold. Thinking of a Shell tank farm on Gulf Freeway that exploded many years ago.
Hey libs and air heads, you better run out and top off just in case, SARCASM.
I was raised in WW and remember watching a fire in the 40’s at the refinery. I moved back in 2002 and bought a home about 3 blocks from the refinery. I had forgotten about the refinery. Two weeks later, the sirens go off and I am wondering what is going on. I head for the refinery and find out that a tank had been overfilled with jet fuel and the the cover was a floating cover and gas fumes were forming a cloud in the sky. I headed for the country. I lived in WW for 1.5 years and moved and never have been sorry to be away from that refinery. I am enjoying reading the messages about the refinery.
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