Refinery Fire in Houston

[joeintexas]

Just read where there was a huge refinery fire in Deer Park, Texas, a part of the metro Houston area. I know we have several members living in that area, hope they are able to get away from the smoke and dangerous cancer causing chemicals in the air. Apparently roads are being closed and people are urged to stay indoors and close windows. It appears to be a really serious situation down there.

 

[Targets Guy]

My sister is under that smoke. She says it is no fun.

 

[Glashaus]

It wasn’t a refinery fire, it was a tank farm that caught fire. It was about 10-15 miles north east of my house. My work is closer and from there earlier in the week you could see the smoke rising up and then the prevailing wind would blow it in a long streak to the north west. I think that they had 11 tanks on fire, some were empty, some had 60-80,000 gallons of gasoline pre cursers. Latter in the week there was a benzene alert for air quality in the immediate area. Yesterday there was a flare up when either a tank re-ignited or another one caught fire. The situation is pretty much under control.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I believe Jack and Miss Pam live in Deer Park. Hope they are not affected.

 

[LVSteve]

Things could be worse. This chemical factory in China looks like it took a B-52 strike. 64 confirmed dead so far. Petrochemicals can be tricky stuff.

China chemical blast: Survivor found but toll rises again - BBC News

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I am just outside the putatively affected area. The kids were hoping for some time off here, but it did not happen. I can only hope the folks in charge of damage control do a decent job. My mother in law lived near ground zero, but we closed on that property last year. It is part of miles and miles of refineries and chemical plants. Bad as it is, I doubt the incremental carcinogens will add too much to what is already there. I worked in a plant just up the road back in the day. Retirement parties were few and pensions were always set up to benefit the spouse as those who retired seldom made it too far. Pay was great though!

 

[kwselke]

It wasn’t a refinery fire, it was a tank farm that caught fire. It was about 10-15 miles north east of my house. My work is closer and from there earlier in the week you could see the smoke rising up and then the prevailing wind would blow it in a long streak to the north west. I think that they had 11 tanks on fire, some were empty, some had 60-80,000 gallons of gasoline pre cursers. Latter in the week there was a benzene alert for air quality in the immediate area. Yesterday there was a flare up when either a tank re-ignited or another one caught fire. The situation is pretty much under control.

The tanks hold 80,000 barrels each. Generally a barrel in the oil business is 42 gallons. They are possibly dealing with over 3,000,000 gallons of product per tank. Of course bunches have burned off and the tanks were probably not a capacity when the fire started.

 

[walkin jack]

I believe Jack and Miss Pam live in Deer Park. Hope they are not affected.

Yer right Rusty. As the crow flies (or as the smoke blows) I live about 2 1/2 to 3 miles from the burning tanks. The wind blew the smoke away from us and it was of a sufficient velocity to keep it moving and at a high elevation. We sheltered in place for a while but city, county and Fed EPA folks were constantly testing air quality all over the area. Shelter in place was canceled and testing continued for the duration.

A hot spot lit it off again Friday morning. A retaining wall failed and all the run off water got loose into a ditch an it caught fire too. This time benzene was involved and that is extremely carcinogenic and we sheltered in place again. Once again the wind blew it away from my location. Never at any time was the smoke over our house.

Fortunately it was under control and extinguished relatively quickly this time. City water and air tests continued and all appear to be okay.

Now the fun part begins as the lawyers line up and the company begins looking for ways to doge their responsibility. Lots of finger pointing between the company and city and county officials. One thing the company did was on the 4day they called in some out of state folk and questions were raised as to why they waited so long. Might have gotten things under control a lot sooner if they hadn't waited?

We are stocking up on popcorn.

 

[walkin jack]

One thing I have been unable to learn is what started the fire in the first place. some tanks have a floating roof to eliminate a vapor space when the material inside is highly flammable. Tanks with fixed roofs have a nitrogen blanket at 3psi to prevent dangerous vapors from collecting between surface of the liquid and the roof. So what happened??

I worked at Shell for 25 years until my retirement in Y2k, which is a couple of miles away from ITC which is locate on Battleground Rd at the San Jacinto Battlegrounds I was on the fire crew for 5 years in the early part of my time there. Seen some serious blazes in that time. This one was pretty scary but no fatalities or serious injuries were reported as far as I know.