On 30 October 2008 at approximately 0745 hours, Tank 176, a 10,000-barrel steel constructed sour water holding tank at the Calumet Lubricants Refinery in Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana caught fire and burned.
According to refinery officials, Tank 176 was in the process of being cleaned out at the time of the explosion and fire. The sour water had been drained and a contractor was in the process of vacuuming approximately 1 foot of waste oil from the bottom of the tank. Combustible vapors eminating from the tank were ignited by a diesel pick-up idling nearby. No injuries were reported as a result of the explosion and fire.
Emergency Response actions were initiated by the refinery, Louisiana State Police and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) representatives were notified at apporixmately 0750 hours.
Six units from the Shreveport Fire Department responded to the fire, along with a crash unit from the Shreveport Airport.
Emergency Response units from the refinery, along with units from the Shreveport Fire Department and Shreveport Airport extinguished the fire using Advance Firefighting Foam (AFFF) and water applied to the tank. Additionally, water monitors were placed on an adjacent 80,000-barrel crude oil tank to keep that tank from also buring due to the intense heat from Tank 176.
According to refinery officials, LDEQ responders performed air monitoring around the perimeter of the facility and in adjacent neighborhoods. There was no evidence of hazardous chemicals migrating off-site as a result of the fire or the firefighting activities.
According to refinery officials, all of the firefighting water and AFFF were contained inside the secondary containment berm around the Tank 176 area. Additionally, the refinery has a wastewater treatment facility on-site with additional freeboard and runoff ponds to accomodate all firefighting water and AFFF.
The fire was extinguished at approximately 0945 hours on 30 October 2008. In addition to destroying Tank 176, the explosion and resulting fire also destroyed the two contractor vacuum trucks that were evacuating the oil from the bottom of the tank at the time of the fire.
The site was secured at approximately 1000 hours and emergency response and fire crews, along with Louisiana State Police and LDEQ left the site at approximately 1045 hours.
One EPA START-3 contractor from Shreveport and one EPA START-3 contractor from Dallas responded to provide air monitoring assistance to the firefigthing crews. The fire had been extinguished at the time the START-3 contractors arrived on-site. EPA START-3 collected documention of the fire and response. EPA START-3 contracotrs demobilized from the site at 1400 hours on 30 October 2008.
Calumet Lubricants Refinery officials stated they planned to vacuum all the firefighting water and AFFF along with any oil from the tank that was released into the secondary containment. They would then separate any waste oil from the water and send the water through the on-site wastewater treatment facility.
None.
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