Incident Report Subject: US - CREWS BATTLE 11 TANK BATTERY FIRE NEAR PERRY Date of Email report: Tue 28/01/2014 Report Detail:
Monday night, hot spots still burn in a rural field near Perry, Oklahoma. Around 3 p.m. an oil tank caught fire, resulting in a domino effect of eleven tanks going up in flames. Drivers could see smoke for miles on Highways 412, 64, & Interstate 35. Larrie Rice, a supervisor of Big J Tank Truck Services, said the company owns the tanks. Rice said one of his veteran workers of 40 years was injecting salt water into a tank, when he heard a "boom," turned around and saw flames coming from the tank. The worker quickly hopped in his truck, sped off to get away from the scene and called Rice about the fire. "Obviously something happened to cause a spark, I don't know, it's just speculation. That's what we are going to try to find out," said Rice. The tanks are mostly made up of salt water and oil floats on top. The site is a disposal well. The fire burned for about three hours. Rice said the majority of the time firefighters let the flames burn out by itself, then put foam down to cut down on the number of hot spots. Fortunately, the employee wasn't hurt. "I told him not to worry about it. He was brave. I've had to tell a person, their husband wasn't coming home before. I don't have to do that tonight, so it's all good. He's fine," Rice said. Three tanks weren't destroyed. Rice estimates Big J Tank Truck Services is losing $1,000 a day in revenue without the eleven tanks and it will take $250,000 to replace those. Rice said the company will comply with Corporation Commission officials about the environmental impact of this fire and any safety issues. "We'll bounce back from this, no problem. Obviously, we will have a lot of clean-up to do, but we will be back up and running in no time" said Rice. The Emergency Manager said they wouldn't let anyone come into the area, a half mile radius, until fire were able to control the fire. Rice said firefighters did an excellent job containing the fire because it could have easily jumped the road. Additional Documentation: |
