No injuries reported in explosion at Anacortes oil refinery
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, March 9, 2002
Associated Press
ANACORTES — An explosion sparked a fire at the Tesoro oil refinery here Saturday, sending thick, black smoke into the air before company crews extinguished the blaze.
There were no injuries.
The problem started around 7:55 a.m. in what company officials call a de-asphalter, a unit involved in the production of asphalt, said Tom Hanich, a Tesoro human resources manager.
Internal emergency response crews had the blaze under control by 8:37 a.m., Hanich said.
It was unclear what caused the explosion. Tesoro’s operations and safety departments were investigating.
The de-asphalter and a nearby processing unit that refines crude oil were temporarily shut down as a precaution, Hanich said.
Its Anacortes plant, which refines about 112,000 barrels of crude oil a day, employs about 350 people — an estimated 75 of whom were working in an area near the explosion Saturday morning, Hanich said.
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