Feb 17, 2012:

Flames shot several stories into the air and heavy black smoke was visible for miles when a tower caught fire at the BP Cherry Point Refinery near Ferndale Friday afternoon, Feb. 17. BP spokesman Mike Abendhoff said all employees were accounted for and there were no reports of injuries, but no information on the cause or the extent of damage was available. Abendhoff was at the refinery when flames broke out. He said he heard the alarm but no explosion. He had no immediate information on what type of fuel was burning. Abendhoff said the refinery's own team of firefighters was first on scene.

Crews from Whatcom County Fire District 7 in Ferndale, and several other fire districts, also responded to the 2:25 p.m. fire. They aimed huge streams of water and foam onto the orange flames that billowed out of the processing unit. Within an hour, the fire had diminished significantly. Firefighters were wading through knee-deep foam as they continued to work on the blaze as a steady rain fell. Within 90 minutes, no flames could be seen.

Carol Sandvig was on the deck on her home on the north end of Birch Bay across from the refinery when she saw the black smoke and flames and heard sirens. She waited to hear evacuation sirens or an automated evacuation phone call, but neither came. "I am thankful that no one was injured and that the fire was put out in a timely manner," she wrote in an email.

About 100 workers who had evacuated were gathered in the main BP parking lot. Spectators gathered along Grandview Road to watch. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Mike MacIntyre said the federal agency would send an air-monitoring crew to the site to make sure there was no danger to fire crews, employees or neighbors of the refinery. Abendhoff said the refinery's own air monitoring crew was already doing tests, and he had no report of danger from fumes on or off site.

Washington Department of Ecology spokeswoman Katie Skipper said her agency also would send staffers to the fire site to make sure that retardant foam and any petroleum product spills are handled to minimize water pollution. There was no immediate report on how the blaze might affect production at the refinery, which is a significant source of fuel supply on the West Coast. Abendhoff said it could be a day or two before refinery engineers can safely enter the area to figure out what went wrong and assess the extent of the damage. He also said he believes some production activity is continuing in refining units not affected by the blaze.

According to the company website, the Cherry Point refinery supplies about 20 percent of Washington state's gasoline, and the majority of the jet fuel used in Seattle, Vancouver B.C., and Portland, Ore., airports. It handles 230,000 barrels per day of crude oil originating in Alaska, the Middle East and West Africa. The refinery, which is laid out over roughly a square mile, has about 800 employees. Another 500 contract workers are also employed there regularly, Abendhoff said. From the 230,000 barrels of crude oil, BP Cherry Point every day produces 2.5 million gallons of jet fuel, 3.5 million gallons of gasoline, 2.2 million gallons of diesel, 360,000 gallons of butane and 140,000 gallons of propane. Fires have been rare at Whatcom County's two refineries in recent decades.

 

In January 1991, there was an explosion and fire at Whatcom County's other, smaller refinery near Neptune Beach, at a time when that facility - now ConocoPhillips - was operated by BP. At that time, the larger refinery to the north where the Feb. 17, 2012, fire occurred, was still operated by ARCO. The 1991 disaster killed Bellingham man Jeff Heidingsfelder and injured six others. That explosion was caused when workers removed a safety plate - called a "blind" - in a pipe that connected a tower to a heater that cooks crude oil. Pressurized gases in the tower rushed past the steel plate and flowed to pilot lights improperly left on in the heater. The company paid millions of dollars in settlements to the victims and paid a fine to the state and federal government for violating health and safety rules. In June 1993, a compressor failure during an equipment test at the same refinery caused an explosion and small fire that was quickly extinguished. No one was injured in that incident.

ABOUT BP CHERRY POINT

• Start-up date: 1971.

• Production: More than 230,000 barrels can be processed every day, making it the largest refinery in Washington state. The facility produces gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, propane, butane, calcined coke and sulfur.

• Upgrades: The company has spent $500 million in the past 10 years to upgrade the facility.

• Details: BP.com.

By THE BELLINGHAM HERALD