Lightning Sends 882,000 Gallons of Gasoline Up in Smoke

Fire department officials believe the fire was started around 7:30 p.m. when lightning struck on or near a tank containing 882,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline. No injuries have been reported.

Fire officials say the blaze is contained and decided last night that the best course of action was to let the fire burn itself out. Firefighters sprayed nearby fuel tanks at Magellan with water to keep them from going up in flames.

Fire engulfs a tank holding unleaded gas at Magellan's Kansas City terminal. June 3, 2008 (Photo by Jenn Cade)

"We thought it would be out by now," said Kansas City Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Shirley. He said part of the tank’s floating roof is still on top of the pool of gas, preventing it from burning off as quickly as fire officials expected.

"Magellan commends the Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department and supporting agencies for their skillful leadership in managing this difficult and unfortunate event," said Bruce Heine, spokesman for the publicly traded company.

Magellan's Kansas City terminal provides distribution services for gasoline, gasoline / ethanol blends, diesel and jet fuel for the local marketplace. Magellan believes there will be minimal disruption to supply in the Midwest; however, as a safety precaution, the company has temporarily discontinued distribution services from the terminal.

Heine said the fire is isolated to one tank with 145,000 barrels of capacity. The tank contained approximately 28,000 barrels, or 882,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline at the time it burst into flames.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees today monitored air quality data from 60 locations in the Kansas City metro area, as part of the agency's ongoing assessment of environmental impacts from the massive fire.

EPA Region 7 emergency responders were dispatched to the scene of the fire at the Magellan Midstream Partners petroleum distribution terminal, 401 E. Donovan Road, at 7:45 pm Tuesday.

During the EPA's initial response to the fire, Region 7 on-scene coordinators used field-portable instruments to screen for volatile organic compounds, VOCs, and particulate matter.

The data indicated only minor detections of VOCs, which can be hazardous to human health. Initial air sampling for particulate matter also indicated only minor detections, but teams will continue to assess data to determine any changes.

As of this morning, the agency was collecting data from at least 60 different monitoring locations in the area, most of them situated along or near the path of the smoke plume generated by the fire.

The monitoring sites include temporary ones set up by EPA and by Magellan's contractors, as well as stationary monitoring points maintained by other agencies.

The monitoring points are situated with an emphasis on monitoring air quality in residential neighborhoods and near sensitive locations such as schools, day care centers, hospitals, nursing homes and urgent care centers.

Katy Miley of the EPA said at a news conference today that the highest readings came from particulates of soot in the air. A reading of 81 was recorded just after midnight east of the fire near U.S. 169, but readings since then have diminished, she said. Normal readings for soot are between 0 and 50.

"There is some particulate in the area, but it isn't anything of any health concern," said Miley.

EPA Region 7 is coordinating with the Unified Command which includes representatives from Magellan, the Kansas City fire and police departments, the Emergency Management Department of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, and the Fairfax Drainage District.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.