GLENPOOL FIRE SETS PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK
North America saw one
of its worst
petrochemical fires
earlier this year when a
lightning strike ignited a tank
at a major fuel depot
operated by US-based
Explorer Pipeline Company in
the small town of Glenpool.
The spectacular fire and
smoke plume which resulted
from ignition of tank 373
raged for hours one day in
June before a co-ordinated
firefighting effort brought the
incident under control and
provided a textbook
illustration of how to fight a
tank farm fire.
Like the UK Buncefield tank
farm fire in December 2005,
Glenpool brought a rapid
response from emergency
services; produced
spectacular images of how
fierce these incidents can be,
and, for Glenpool Fire
Department in Oklahoma,
provided its biggest
firefighting test for a century.
Glenpool's fire department
had responded to a previous
tank fire in 2003 at an
adjacent ConocoPhillips tank
farm, where a blaze was
ignited by static electricity so
they were not unaccustomed
to these big fires.
Then in March this year
Glenpool fire personnel
toured Explorer's facility
during the rehabilitation of
another site tank, allowing
fire officers to familiarise
themselves with Explorer's
facilities and firefighting
capabilities, laying the
foundations for successful
emergency co-ordination
later.
Glenpool fire chief Paul
Newton was in no doubt
those visits and one-to-one
meetings helped his
firefighting 'platoons' in their
response and damage
limitation in June. He wrote:
“This provided an excellent
opportunity to review preplans.
Each platoon visited
the site over a three-day
period to gain first-hand
knowledge of the site and
Explorer's emergency
operation plans. These visits
opened the door for
discussions that ultimately
increased the level of trust
and confidence between the
facility and responders.
Everyone was on a first name
basis at the time of the
incident.”
The fire began as a storm
moved over Glenpool, on 12
June this year. Glenpool fire
department received the first
of many 911 emergency calls
at 09.07am.
fuel supply system stretching
1,400 miles from the US Gulf
coast to the US Midwest and
Glenpool is one of six major
tankage and terminal sites
along the route.
Tank 373 at Glenpool was
ignited by a lightning strike
just after 9am. It was built in
1970 as a welded steel tank,
with American Petroleum
Institute specification number
650, with a cone roof,
Newton noted. Later in 1977,
an aluminium floating deck
had been installed.
Just minutes before it
ignited, the tank with a
diameter of 140 ft (42.68m),
had been filled near to
capacity, to a height of 48 ft
(14.63 m) with 117,000
barrels (4.914 million US
gallons) of blended gasoline
(petrol).
Newton said Explorer staff
were well versed in their
emergency plans, and within
four minutes of ignition, fire
pumps were started and
fixed monitors positioned,
while key Explorer personnel
were informed of the event.
Eleven fire appliances were
used during the response,
from Glenpool, and
neighbouring districts in
Jenks, Sapulpa and Tulsa and
Bixby.
Initially the fire
department's response was
aimed at cooling
neighbouring tanks to ensure
they were not ignited, and to
minimize the environmental
impact of unburned
combustion products in the
atmosphere and to prevent
what Newton called a
“catastrophic” release of
hydrocarbons to the ground if
the tank walls failed.
