[belpre122]

Fuel explosion causes lockdown, evacuations

Melissa Pinion-Whitt, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/14/2009 03:40:52 PM PST


Photo Gallery: Tanker fire SAN BERNARDINO - Authorities evacuated dozens of people, locked down an elementary school and doused flames in a tense battle to keep 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel from igniting at a gas station Wednesday.
The fire started at 8:45 a.m. after vapors from a fuel tanker exploded at the Merit Oil Company on the corner of Del Rosa Avenue and Pumalo Street.
Al Green, who has been driving eight years for Merit, happened to be standing on the side of the tanker when a fireball shot up into the air.
"If I had been up there, I would have been toasted," he said.

Merit Oil Co. owner and President Ron Nuckles, left, and Merit truck driver Al Green open the hatch on top of the fuel truck that caught fire on Wednesday. The truck had just completed a gasoline transfer at a fuel station in the 2500 block of Del Rosa Avenue when vapor turned into a fireball. (Al Cuizon/Staff Photographer)


The explosion engulfed the tanker in flames and also burned a couch and several trees.
Green had just finished transferring 2,500 gallons of gasoline into an underground tank at the gas station when some vapor turned into a fireball.
"We're real fortunate that the explosion didn't happen in the middle of fueling," said San Bernardino fire Battalion Chief Mike Alder.
Despite the explosion and the fire to the fuel truck, the driver escaped with no injuries.
Forty firefighters rushed to the scene in four minutes and worked frantically to extinguish the blaze. Their worry was the additional 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel that remained in the truck's second tank.
Firefighters closed off a 500-foot area surrounding the gas station and evacuated about 40 residents from the area, said San Bernardino fire spokesman Steve Tracy.
Nearby Hunt Elementary School was placed on lockdown - meaning students were kept inside classrooms - while firefighters battled the blaze.
Firefighters sprayed water and foam onto the tanker, eventually putting out the flames. No fuel spilled from the truck.
"The biggest thing now is to figure out why it happened," Alder said.
Tatiyana Vollhardt, director of safety for Merit Oil Company, said there have been no explosions from fuel transfers in the company's history, which dates back to the 1950s.
That's a fact that had Green laughing nervously.

"Why me?" he asked.

[TimberWolf]

Hey Belpre,
We do not use vapor recovery for ULSD, we only vent the tank. My understanding was vapor is required for gas only, there are some stations here in central florida that dont even have vapor recovery systems, most of them are located in volusia county.
Just learned how to do pumps offs this week and still loving the job...

Timberwolf

[belpre122]

Originally Posted by TimberWolf

Hey Belpre,
We do not use vapor recovery for ULSD, we only vent the tank. My understanding was vapor is required for gas only, there are some stations here in central florida that dont even have vapor recovery systems, most of them are located in volusia county.
Just learned how to do pumps offs this week and still loving the job...

Timberwolf

Hey TW..........great to hear that it is going so well for you! Do you have locking cam ears on your pump off hoses? If not, buy some bungee cords to carry with you to use for wrapping around the cam ears, especially at the pump connection.......and for the cap on the side your not using. A few bucks well spent for sure!! There was a driver here that arrived at a brand new small trucking terminal that had not been opened yet. He started pumping off 7500 ULSD clear from his 3000 gallon tank. Everything looked good so he jumped up in the passenger side to do the bills. Oooopppsss.....the cap came off the driver side and was "fertilizing" the entire new asphalt parking lot with diesel! We lost that account. LOL

We don't use recovery with #2 up here either. I never have been to a station, such as you mention, that didn't have vapor recovery for gasoline. Let's hope that is the case for the driver in this story. Since it was in California, I'm going to assume that vapor recovery systems were installed. Let's just hope that he was using them and didn't stick a screwdriver or something in the cap and have the vapor blowing up in the air................

Bottom line though............I sure am glad the no one was hurt.

[Orangetxguy]

Originally Posted by belpre122

Hey TW..........great to hear that it is going so well for you! Do you have locking cam ears on your pump off hoses? If not, buy some bungee cords to carry with you to use for wrapping around the cam ears, especially at the pump connection.......and for the cap on the side your not using. A few bucks well spent for sure!! There was a driver here that arrived at a brand new small trucking terminal that had not been opened yet. He started pumping off 7500 ULSD clear from his 3000 gallon tank. Everything looked good so he jumped up in the passenger side to do the bills. Oooopppsss.....the cap came off the driver side and was "fertilizing" the entire new asphalt parking lot with diesel! We lost that account. LOL

We don't use recovery with #2 up here either. I never have been to a station, such as you mention, that didn't have vapor recovery for gasoline. Let's hope that is the case for the driver in this story. Since it was in California, I'm going to assume that vapor recovery systems were installed. Let's just hope that he was using them and didn't stick a screwdriver or something in the cap and have the vapor blowing up in the air................

Bottom line though............I sure am glad the no one was hurt.

Hey you old duffer. You got nothing better to do, than read CA news??

Funny thing...the tank doesn't "look" like it's been on fire...no soot marks on that polished aluminum.

I'm thinking that the fire was only over there by that couch...which looks like it probably got some product on it.

I'm betting that at some point, a driver "topped" one of the tanks at that drop, product became trapped in the vent/vapor tube, then this driver was unlucky enough to hook up without having the vapor properly attached(...or the vapor was simply non-functional), and the pressure from unloading product into the underground tank, was enough to clear the vent tube.

Been there...done that.

Ruined a family's "Bar-B-Que" in North Seattle, because of bad vent tubes...at an ARCO branded Circle K. The family was cooking ribs on a charcoal grill, which was on their second floor balconey...which was right next to the top of the vent tubes for the station. That was in 1987...and before "Vapor Recovery" was mandated for all Puget Sound gas stations.

It was sort of neat, seeing the flame blowing out of the tops of the two tubes that had vapors blowing out of them. Black soot was all over everything...the apartment complex, the C-stores back wall....even the trees had it.

:lol::lol::lol:

[belpre122]

Stan...........to remind you how the big boys do things!:rofl:
7000 (87) & 1000 #2ULSD w/additive.

Downtown Indy @ 0230AM. 11 degrees. Is that what coolie carrier means?:smokin:

. :banana2::banana3::banana2::banana3::banana2:

[Orangetxguy]

Originally Posted by belpre122

Stan...........to remind you how the big boys do things!:rofl:
7000 (87) & 1000 #2ULSD w/additive.

Downtown Indy @ 0230AM. 11 degrees. Is that what coolie carrier means?:smokin:

. :banana2::banana3::banana2::banana3::banana2:

Gosh durn!!! I just might have to move up there AND SHOW YOU HOW IT'S DONE!!! :lol::lol::lol::lol:


What you gonna do? Pour yer "P" jug into the product??

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[ben45750]

We never used vapor recovery for diesel or k1 either. It sounded though like the driver was using the vapor recovery because the explosion would have happened at the filler necks of the ground tanks instead of the tanker? I guess though if the tanker was not properly grounded while making the drop it could build up static electricity and it just happened to have the right combination of vapor and oxygen?

I had several drops where the tanks had no vapor recovery, we used a coax hydrant in that situation.

Did you notice in the pictures the owner of the company of the company has a Bluetooth in his ear? Kenan Advantage would fire us for that.