Report

Subject:                     Texas Tank Failure - Lamesa 15/05/09

Date of Email report:   Mon 18/05/2009

Report Detail:

Firefighter gives detailed account of massive explosion in Lamesa

LAMESA, TX (KCBD) - The dramatic video of the fiery explosion in Lamesa is making national news around the country. The fire burned for more than nine hours after a bolt of lightning struck a disposal tank sending smoke in the air for miles.  Fire Service Manager for the City of Lamesa Kendall Amos was there fighting the blaze. "It's just part of what we do. It's an accepted risk -- this one shook me. Mainly because I was worried about my men," said Amos. After two hours of fighting the blaze firefighters heard a hissing sound. "I was probably 20 yards from the front of the fire. I saw a couple of guys fall and I was running to try to help get them up," said Amos about the seconds following the explosion. Amos says the chain fence around the salt water disposal site shielded his men from flying debris. "Our people didn't get hit. Our trucks didn't get his. I can't believe it. It was like a grenade going off," said Amos.  Viewing a scene he describes as a war zone, Amos says it wasn't death that scared him. "Really what was going through my mind was not that I'm going to die, but that I'm going to get burned and have to live," he said. Crews from Andrews were called in to help fight the blaze. Firefighters say the plume of smoke was a quarter mile wide and covered the city of Lamesa.  Severe weather put NewsChannel 11's Storm Chaser David Drummond just 200 yards from the explosion allowing him to capture the dramatic video. "You've heard my voice next to tornadoes, this time you can hear in my voice I was scared to death," says Drummond.  Drummond agrees with Amos that it was a miracle no one was hurt. "I honestly can't believe we don't have 20 or 30 dead or in hospital. All I can say is the hand of God was on us," says Amos. One firefighter did suffer minor injuries but is said to be doing just fine.

The tank station is a total lost. Estimated damage is around $725,000 not including clean up costs.

Coroner: Force likely killed 3 in Ark. tank blast

LITTLE ROCK, Arkensa. — Three men killed when an empty gasoline storage tank exploded in north Arkansas likely died from the impact of the blast, a coroner said Wednesday.  Federal safety officials began their investigation into the blast at the TEPPCO Partners LP facility near Searcy in earnest Wednesday, trying to determine what killed the contract workers from Indiana. Meanwhile, Arkansas officials acknowledged the tank fell outside of any state oversight and last underwent an internal inspection by federal authorities more than a decade ago. White County Coroner David Powell told The Associated Press that rescuers recovered the workers' bodies outside of the crumpled storage tank after the explosion Tuesday afternoon. Powell said the men's bodies bore no signs of being scorched by flames.

"There was no indication of fire. It was an explosion," Powell said Wednesday. "The injuries were simply caused from the concussion of the explosion." All three men worked for C&C Welding of Elizabethtown, Ky. Powell identified the dead as William Decker, 48, of Scottsburg, Ind.; Roy Mathis, 60, of Wheatfield, Ind.; and Stoney Powell, 45, also of Wheatfield. Powell said the workers' bodies had been sent to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for autopsies. The TEPPCO facility, just east of U.S. 67, is one of nearly 20 such TEPPCO sites in Arkansas, said Rick Rainey, a spokesman for the Houston-based energy company. The facility stored diesel, jet fuel and unleaded gasoline for clients in five separate tanks. The tanks connect to a series of pipelines, allowing fuel to be sent to clients at their request, Rainey said.  The 67,000-barrel tank that exploded had been drained of gasoline and cleaned before Tuesday, Rainey said. Company officials also entered the tank with equipment to detect the level of flammable gas still in the air and found it safe enough to be worked on, he said.  "Everything was basically in order before the contractors began the work," Rainey said. The contractors were on the tank's floating roof when the explosion occurred, he said.

Rainey said company officials were cooperating with inspectors from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Elizabeth Todd, a Dallas-based spokeswoman with OSHA, said investigators had six months to complete a report about the deaths. Todd declined to comment further about the investigation, though federal records indicate OSHA inspectors never cited the facility before.  The U.S. Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulated the facility, said spokesman Damon Hill. Investigators last performed an internal inspection of the tank in 1998 and conducted an external inspection in 2008, Hill said.  Hill said he did not have immediate access to reports about what investigators found during those inspections. At the state level, however, the tank escaped scrutiny from authorities. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality only checked what hazardous materials or air pollution the facility gave off, while the state's Oil and Gas Commission only regulates well sites and drilling equipment.  The state fire marshal, a trooper with the Arkansas State Police, oversees such tanks only if they were built after 1992, said agency spokesman Bill Sadler. The fire marshal has no secretary or support staff, but did travel to the explosion site to inspect the tank after the blast, Sadler said. The tank "predates the statute that would bring him into the investigation," Sadler said.

Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said the governor didn't have enough information now to decide whether to push legislators to change laws governing tank inspection.  "It's too early now to know if regulation would have even made a difference," DeCample said.

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