BP Texas Plant Workers Saw Leak Before Blast (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

("...possible ignition sources on the ground near the vent stack..." my guess? Cigarette butt)

BP Texas Plant Workers Saw Leak Before Blast

Wed Mar 30, 2005 09:23 PM ET

By Jeff Franks

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Workers at the BP refinery in Texas City, Texas, saw "hydrocarbon liquid and vapor" pouring out of a 100-foot-tall vent stack and falling to the ground seconds before a thunderous explosion rocked the plant a week ago and killed 15 people, investigators said on Wednesday. Witnesses said the falling chemicals apparently ignited when they reached the ground, causing the blast at the nation's third-largest refinery, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

"Witness evidence points to possible ignition sources on the ground near the vent stack. At this time, the exact ignition source remains unknown," said chemical board investigation manager Bill Hoyle in a statement. Local news reports said the ignition source may have been a nearby vehicle that someone started, but that was not confirmed.

The liquid and vapor pouring out of the stack came from a part of the so-called "isomerization unit," where octane is added to gasoline and which was being restarted after a routine maintenance operation, the chemical board said. They are focusing their probe on a piece of equipment known as a "raffinate splitter" which prepares highly flammable chemicals hexane and pentane for the isomerization process.

A day before the explosion, a small fire broke out near the unit due to a valve leak, but it is not known if the two incidents were connected, officials at BP said. Chemical board investigators stressed that their findings are preliminary because they have not yet entered the blast site due to benzene vapors leaking from a damaged storage tank 300 yards away. BP is attempting to stop the leak, which makes the air toxic, so probers can get a closer look.

(more at link above)

[truthisfreedom]

1. all day long, we are all sources of ignition of one kind or another. we

slide out of our car seats and get a .1" spark to the frame of our cars... we light lighters, light matches, turn on our cell phones... the world is a giant technological source of ignition.

so who is surprised? it doesn't take a brain scientist to take a guess at what happened... with enormous amounts of flammables around us... we were simply living, and then we died in a ball of flame.