Local

Fire at Tulsa Holly refinery under control after early morning explosion

UPDATE:

Statement from HOLLY REFINING AND MARKETING on fire incident.

Shortly after 2:00 a.m. a fire occurred on the Diesel Hydrotreater unit at the Tulsa East refinery location.  The fire is currently contained on-site by the Holly Emergency Response Team.  All personnel are accounted for and there are no reported injuries.  Perimeter monitoring shows no risk to the surrounding community.  A full investigation will be completed to determine the cause of the fire.

The flames could be seen from several miles away Thursday morning when a tanker at the Holly Sinclair refinery was reported to be on fire.

Smoke could be seen as the flames lit up the night sky about 2:30 a.m. Thursday as Holly crews sprayed water on the fire.

The Tulsa Fire Department  Hazmat Unit was put on standby if it became necessary for them to help bring the fire under control.

Neighbors in the area of the refinery just west of the Arkansas River were standing outside their homes and watching the flames rise into the air. One of those is George, he told KRMG news what happened. "It sounded like an airplane that had crash landed, it came across my stereo and I thought, that's not my stereo." It was instead an explosion at the refinery that started the fire. George described what he saw when he got here "I just saw flames going up in the air, they have those stacks that have to be so far up in the air for regulations and they were as high as that."

George told us these kinds of events keep him concerned "yeah, maybe a little bit" he smiled as he said. "It really comes down to what you can afford and what you can afford, kinda like that."

Cody Atkins was just getting off work in Sapulpa when he saw the flames. "Driving back from Sapulpa from Tulsa you could see the glow in the sky" he began. Cody told us he lives about a mile from the refinery so he decide to come take a closer look. "Flames probably 150 feet or higher than that, then it would go down and then flare back up." Cody and the man he was visiting with seemed impressed with the job the refinery firefighters did. "I was a volunteer firefigher in Texas and these are VERY dangerous."

There were no reports of injury.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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