Blackout causes explosion at Marathon refinery (How many Refinery explosion in 5 years?)

Associated Press ^ | Aug. 15, 2003 | Associated Press

[comnet]

Blackout causes explosion at Marathon refinery

MELVINDALE, Mich. -- An explosion rocked the Marathon Oil refinery, causing police to evacuate hundreds of people who lived nearby. Officials said the blast was linked to the nation's massive power outage.

The Thursday evening explosion occurred in one of the plant's vessels -- smoke stacks that can be seen burning off gases produced by the plant, Melvindale Fire Chief Sam Pedron said.

Pedron said the widespread power outage that spread to parts of Michigan affected a pump at the 183-acre complex, which produces gasoline as well as jet and other fuels. That caused a buildup of pressure which ultimately triggered the explosion, Pedron said.

Unsure if another explosion was possible or if the gasses were toxic, officials evacuated one square-mile around the plant. Fires of the company's other stacks flared to try to clear the facility of excess gas and smoke.

"If this thing pops you're going to have fallout," Pedron said, explaining that a more powerful explosion in one of the stacks could rain down sheet metal and other parts on this neighborhood about 10 miles southwest of Detroit.

Officials at Houston-based Marathon did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

Officials also closed both northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 75 that run alongside the facility.

Henry Zalasko, 56, was at his Melvindale home, which had no power because of the blackout, about a quarter-mile from the refinery when state police pounded on his door. Zalasko said he was told he and his family must leave immediately and seek refuge at the city's ice rink.

He and about 200 other people sat inside on chairs, tried to sleep on the floor or remained in their cars in the rink's parking lot, waiting for answers. While his wife and two children tried to sleep, Zalasko propped a four-inch TV on the hood of his car to keep up with the news.

"It's been miserable. It's a nightmare," said Linda Wahl, 60, who lives just a few blocks from the refinery.

[MizSterious]

FYI

[Dubh_Ghlase]

Officials said the blast was linked to the nation's massive power outage.

Yeah...right!

[SolutionsOnly]

Another design deficiency exposed....

[habs4ever]

Similar thing happened about 1 1/2 miles from me, where there is a huge Petro-Canada refinery.Smoke and flames poured out their largest smokestack, and burned away for at least 6 hrs.

[JackOfVA]

It probably was related to the power outage.

My father worked at this refinery until he retired and I worked there during the summer while I was working on my engineering degree in the 1960's.

At that time, although many pumps were powered by steam, generated by the main boiler, there were a very large number of electric motors, some in the hundreds of HP range, that were necessary for operation, with an energy consumption that could not be supported by emergency generators. Plus, the process control requires electrical power. Detroit Edison had a large substantion within a few hundred yards of the refinery and there was a direct feed from it, as I recall.

The plant was designed, though, that in the event of a power outage, you would not have a catastrophic failure, but could do an emergency shutdown. That process might require burning off some product, but that's what flare stacks are for.

Jack

[comnet]

How many Refinery explosion in 5 years?

[JackOfVA]

My dad worked there from 1952 to 1983, and in that 31 year period there was one major explosion that killed two or three workers and injured several others.

Refining requires mixing high temperatures and high pressures with extremely flamible liquids and is therefore unforgiving of mistakes.

Jack

[norraad]

I'm 3rd generation refinery worker and it is amazing they don't go more often.

[Eva]

Actually an unexpected shut down is quite likely to trigger an explosion at a refinery if the generators don't immediately fire up. There should be some back up mechanism though.

[norraad]

We purge any area like that with nitrogen now.

The science of safety is avant guard at most black gold smelters now.