By Michael Clements and T.J. Aulds
Texas City Sun

Published March 31, 2004

Michael Clements

and T.J. Aulds

Texas City Sun

TEXAS CITY — A furnace at the BP Refinery in Texas City burst into flames Tuesday night. No injuries or deaths were reported in the blaze that lit up the Gulf Coast sky.

Bruce Clawson, the city’s emergency management director, said the furnace exploded around 6:30 p.m. He said the fire was fueled by Naptha, a petroleum feed stock used at the refinery. He said that after two head counts, BP had accounted for all its personnel.

The city was placed under Level 4 alert and a shelter in place warning and roads leading to the plant were blocked. The shelter in place warning and roadblocks were lifted by 9 p.m.

The Industrial Mutual Aid System was implemented around 7 p.m. Under that system industrial and public firefighters are called upon for assistance.

“Every piece of fire fighting equipment in the area is here right now,” Clawson said at around 8:45 p.m.

BP spokesman Annie Smith confirmed that all workers had been accounted for and that no injuries were reported.

Marti Snyder, another BP spokesman said that as of 10:30 p.m. the fire was “pretty much under control” and close to out. She said an investigation team will begin its work today to find the cause of the blast and fire.

Regulatory agencies will also conduct investigations.

The situation was downgraded to a Level 1 around 10:45 p.m.

After recent reports that refineries in this area might be targeted by terrorists, Clawson said there was some concern. However, he said that at this time there is no evidence of that.

“That was one of our first concerns,” Clawson said. “But there is no indication of that, none at all.”

Residents in the city were a bit on edge when the incident first took place.

“I saw the smoke and thought it was a house fire at first,” said Texas City resident Jim Malm, who works in oil movements at BP. “But the smoke kept receding, then building and kept getting bigger, and I realized it was at the plant.”

Tommy Clark said he was in his office at Trey Industries not far from the refinery when he heard — and could feel — the initial blast.

“There was a boom, followed by two more booms,” he said. “It shook the whole building.”

At Mainland Center Hospital the call went out for all available doctors and nurses. The hospital initiated its disaster response plan.

“As soon as the command center was alerted, we were alerted and we went into standby mode to deal with any injuries associated with the incident,” said hospital spokesman Harold Fattig.

Fattig said that as of 9:30 p.m. 10 people had reported to the hospital complaining of exposure. He added that a decontaimanation area had been set up just in case dangerous chemicals had been released into the air.

Clawson said that all reports indicated that there was no danger to the community.

Still, many were not taking any chances. College of the Mainland dismissed all of its classes at 8:30 p.m., but college spokesman Jim Higgins said classes would resume on a normal schedule today.

The Texas City-La Marque baseball and softball games were called because of the incident.

The Texas City junior varsity baseball team, which had been in La Marque for a game, sheltered in place at the student center at College of the Mainland.

Sun reporter Clarissa Silva and Photographer Dwight C. Andrews contributed to this report.

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