By Jeff Shultz
The fire is out at the Wynnewood Refinery but the damage one lightning strike caused to the plant last Friday has mounted into the millions of dollars.
The blaze started in one storage tank last Friday morning when lightning from an early morning storm struck the tank, setting the fuel inside on fire.
“That tank was storing a gasoline blending component titled Naphtha. We had about 50,000 barrels of Naphtha in that tank,” said Mike Hampton, a spokesperson for the Wynnewood Refinery Plant.
At first plant officials thought they had that tank fire under control, but late Friday night the fire flared up, causing a portion of the inside wall of the tank to collapse, Hampton said.
The fire from that tank spread to a nearby tank holding approximately 20,000 barrels of diesel fuel, which eventually ignited, creating a huge fire ball in the night sky.
“Tank fires are hard to fight because of the all the fuel in the tanks,” Hampton said. “You pretty much have to let them burn themselves out.”
Hampton said the blaze was contained to just the refinery property and there never was a danger to the general public during the blaze.
As for the damage estimates, Hampton said the fuel in both tanks alone are estimated to be worth around $8 million.
“When you add the tanks to that figure, we’re looking at a loss of around $10 million,” he told the Daily Democrat.
Both fires burned during the day Saturday and by late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, both had burned themselves out, Hampton said.
Hampton said 13-15 fire departments — some as far away as Tulsa and Ardmore — aided in battling the fire and preventing it from spreading any further.
In an unrealated incident, a boiler at the plant exploded Monday morning while employees were firing up the boiler unit.
Hampton said two employees received minor burns and were treated and released from the hospital shortly after the incident.
