Posted on 04/02/2010 7:59:31 AM PDT by luckymom
ANACORTES, Wash. - Three people have died in an early morning explosion at the Tesoro oil refinery in Anacortes. Four workers have been injured and taken to the hospital.
Greg Wright, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Tesoro, tells KING 5 News that three workers were killed in the refinery explosion. At one point, a number of workers were missing but Wright says all workers are now accounted for.
The blaze started in a naptha unit of the complex.
(Excerpt) Read more at king5.com ...
I was on a tanker loaded with very gaseous crude oil docked at Anacortes refinery. It was the same crude oil from Borneo that blew up a tanker in LA harbor a year previous. We had to open the tanks ullage caps so customs could gage our tanks. You could see the distortion of the air as the vapors poured out & rolled over the side. I went on the dock & met dumb & dumber sitting there, burning creosote tar which oozed out of the wood, with a magnifying glass.
Also, anyone notice how something this happens every year just before Summer?
RIP.
Uh... well no, I guess I hadn’t noticed that. You’re suggesting that they blew up their own refinery on purpose?
I heard about this on the drive in. One of those things that only seem to happen in States far away from here like the Gulf Coast.
Two dead a couple of weeks ago in a refinery fire in Artesia, NM. State and Federal OSHA have moved in a portable building separate from the refinery offices to conduct the investigation.
Were they each smoking a cigarette at the time?
No, I am just noting that refineries tend to have serious problems right before Summer.
Not claiming any conspiracy. Just noting.
Springtime is "turnaround" time for most refineries. They change fuel blends, take down units for maintenance, repair and modification, and have a large number of non-refinery contractors on site. I expect most problems happen when those units are brought back up.
All employees and contractors are required to be safety trained but it is doubtful that the needed level of training has been administered. Then it is up to the onsite safety inspector to issue the proper work permit and remain to detect work deficiencies. However, if he/they are spread too thin during turnaround, incidents can happen.
In Artesia, they have "smoke shacks," open air enclosures that are available for use by smokers during authorized work breaks.
That's what I was thinking. There must be something that happens at these places that cause a higher frequency of accidents/explosions. Probably working people seven days a week 12 to 16 hour days to get it done.
This country is in real trouble vis-a-vis energy. Refineries are getting old and this dictator in the WH wants them to go away.
Liberal thought process: If we just went carbon free, these things wouldn’t haqppen...
Usually its the salaried supervisors that work those hours. And they are not eligible for overtime!
The link has been changed by KING and replaced by this one:
http://www.king5.com/news/local/three-dead-in-explosion-at-Anacortes-refinery-89759407.html
Naphtha is a volatile, flammable liquid derived during the refining process, and the unit had undergone maintenance and was in the process of returning to operation -- a "typically dangerous" step of turning up heat and pressure, Wright said.
"We do not know the cause. we know that there was maintenance work being performed on the unit at the time," said Wright. "The work was pretty well done and the unit was being brought up to operational status. Other than that, we don't know what had happened."
There were no smoking signs up, so no, they wern’t smoking cigarettes. I guess they figured smoking tar was exempt.
Hold my cigarette & y’all watch this.
Link has been changed again:
http://www.king5.com/news/local/four-dead-in-explosion-at-Anacortes-refinery-89759407.html
KING home page is here:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.