Report Detail:

GALLUP, N.M.
Two explosions rocked a gasoline refinery in Western New Mexico Thursday, seriously injuring four workers, forcing the evacuation of a nearby travel center and sending plumes of smoke into the sky. Fire and rescue crews arrived shortly after explosions at Giant Industries were reported at 9:15 a.m. The fire was quickly extinguished, although smoke continued to smolder hours later.

Four employees with life-threatening burns were airlifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. Three were in critical condition, and the fourth was in satisfactory condition Thursday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.Two other employees, who suffered minor injuries as part of their efforts to contain the fire following the explosions, were treated and released, state police Lt. said.The employees' identities were not released.

Giant Industries spokesman said in a statement that the company did not know the extent of the damage or the cause of the blasts. Corporate officials from Arizona were being dispatched to the refinery, about 15 miles east of Gallup. A small plume of white smoke wafted from a blackened lattice of pipes and refining equipment as firefighters cooled the area with water from six fire hoses. Fire, apparently from the propane, flared amid the wreckage.

Giant Industies spokesman said a processor unit used to make high-octane fuel exploded, causing a second blast. The cause of the first explosion was under investigation. Following the blasts, the refinery was burning off vapors as a precaution to prevent more explosions, Glascock said. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigations Board, an independent government agency headquartered in Washington, D.C., was sending a team of investigators to the refinery plant. The FBI also launched a routine investigation, and state officials said they were monitoring the situation.

There were about 50 employees at the refinery when the explosions occurred, the Giant spokesman said. They, along with people at a nearby travel center, were evacuated, but authorities said they were not in immediate danger. "All the fail-safes worked" at the refinery, McKinley County sheriff's Lt. said. "It turned out as well as could be expected."

Giant Industries, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., refines and markets petroleum products. The company owns and operates two New Mexico crude oil refineries and a crude oil gathering pipeline system based in Farmington, which services the refineries. It also owns distribution terminals in Albuquerque and Flagstaff, Ariz., a fleet of crude oil and finished product trucks and a chain of retail service station units in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona.

Reported in the Daily Lobo