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Lightning To Blame For N.J. Oil Refinery Fire
(CBS/AP) WEST DEPTFORD, N.J. Lightning struck a huge storage tank at a South Jersey oil refinery Wednesday afternoon setting the tank ablaze, but there were no injuries, officials said.
The fire began shortly after 4:30 p.m. at Sunoco's Eagle Point Refinery along the Delaware River just south of Philadelphia, said Gerald Davis, a spokesman for Philadelphia-based Sunoco.
The lightning struck a tank containing about 36,000 barrels -- about 1.5 million gallons -- of xylene, a gasoline blending component.
A plume of flame and thick black smoke was visible for miles, but the fire did not pose a danger to residents of the area, Davis said.
Workers at the refinery make rounds through the tank field, but officials said it's not a place where people are working constantly.
The blaze was confined to the single tank. Each tank at the refinery is surrounded by an earthen berm designed to contain more than the capacity of the tank in case of a fire or spill, officials said.
Sunoco emergency response personnel and fire crews from nearby municipalities were protecting surrounding tanks and there was no danger of the fire spreading, said John McCann, a Sunoco spokesman at the scene.
Fire crews were using foam to fight the flames, but McCann said he could not estimate how long it would take to extinguish the blaze.
The state Department of Environmental Protection sent inspectors to the scene, spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas said.
Lightning To Blame For N.J. Oil Refinery Fire
(CBS/AP) WEST DEPTFORD, N.J. Lightning struck a huge storage tank at a South Jersey oil refinery Wednesday afternoon setting the tank ablaze, but there were no injuries, officials said.
The fire began shortly after 4:30 p.m. at Sunoco's Eagle Point Refinery along the Delaware River just south of Philadelphia, said Gerald Davis, a spokesman for Philadelphia-based Sunoco.
The lightning struck a tank containing about 36,000 barrels -- about 1.5 million gallons -- of xylene, a gasoline blending component.
A plume of flame and thick black smoke was visible for miles, but the fire did not pose a danger to residents of the area, Davis said.
Workers at the refinery make rounds through the tank field, but officials said it's not a place where people are working constantly.
The blaze was confined to the single tank. Each tank at the refinery is surrounded by an earthen berm designed to contain more than the capacity of the tank in case of a fire or spill, officials said.
Sunoco emergency response personnel and fire crews from nearby municipalities were protecting surrounding tanks and there was no danger of the fire spreading, said John McCann, a Sunoco spokesman at the scene.
Fire crews were using foam to fight the flames, but McCann said he could not estimate how long it would take to extinguish the blaze.
The state Department of Environmental Protection sent inspectors to the scene, spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas said.
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