The blast could be felt for a mile and the smoke could be seen for 20 miles, but an explosion and fire at the Alon Refinery Wednesday afternoon left no injuries and relatively little damage. "Diesel sludge" stored in a 60,000-barrel tank -- bigger than a big house -- that exploded and burned at about 3:14 p.m. The tank was almost empty when the explosion happened, but it was full enough to burn for more than an hour, sending a tower of thick black smoke into the sky. One witness told KGET videographer Chuck Dennis he saw the top of the tank fly 20 feet into the air after the explosion. There was a loud boom heard throughout the area. "The explosion rattled the windows at my home near Coffee & Brimhall," Sara Aguilar posted on the KGET Facebook page. "Large amounts of black billowing smoke is filling up the sky now. I hope nobody was hurt!!" Several people called the Channel 17 newsroom asking if any evacuations were necessary; none was. The tank was on a remote corner of the refinery property, and the fire posed no danger to the refining operation, Capt. Sean Collins of the Kern County Fire Department told 17 News. The fire was contained to the tank, so no oil leaked. "There were no injuries," Collins said. "Everyone is accounted for. There is no danger to the employees of the environment."
