Explosion, fire rock BP Amoco in Texas City

09:28 AM CST on Wednesday, March 31, 2004

By Jeff McShan / 11 News and Associated Press

Click to watch video

Firefighters responded Tuesday night to a fire at the BP Amoco refinery and chemical complex in the 2300 block of 5th Ave. in Texas City. Several explosions occurred around 7:15 Tuesday evening sparking the fire.

Multiple agencies responded to the fire.

A company spokesperson says that the fire started in a furnace. They add that all employees have been accounted for and no injuries were reported.

Area residents say there were a series explosions, possibly eight throughout the evening. The sirens went off and everyone was told to shelter in place.

Emergency management officials were worried about additional explosions and about possible fumes. They called an all clear around 9:00 and say there were no toxic fumes detected.

For much of the evening it was uneasy, unsettling in Texas City. Emergency units moved in early in the evening to keep people back and safe.

But before they could Chris Cagle of Houston and Manuel Gracia of Texas City had their camcorders out, recording every moment. "We got up close and like I said there was no fear when we first got there," says Cagle. "Then all of a sudden the second explosion went and then like a third one right behind it. And this is when we were real close to it and I like, let's pull back, man. Let's get out, let's get out now. We might give them the video. I was like let's get out of here now and he was like, 'No, I got it, I got it, I got it.'"

"He said let's go down the street, so we went down the street," says Gracia. "We got where the perimeter of the fence is at BP, we got there and I stood on top of the van. And was filming there and I got like firemen walking into the fire, water shooting on into the fire and stuff like that. You can see flames and stuff."

There were still a number of emergency personnel still on the scene at the BP plant late Tuesday evening. And according to the Texas City Emergency Management coordinator they will be most of the night. "The incident has been downgraded to at 2C, it may go even lower than that before the evening is over," says B.C. Clawson. "But it will continue to burn with heavy flaring throughout the night. But again, the event is under control and has been fully contained.

Texas City officials were in touch with the FBI Houston office. The FBI says the explosions and fire were not an act of terrorism. But emergency management officials and the FBI were talking and one the same page as they began to investigate the fire.

Some College of the Mainland evening classes were dismissed and the Texas City-LaMarque high school baseball game was called because of the fire. Players on the Texas City junior varsity baseball team were initially being sheltered at the college campus.

The Texas City refinery is the largest of BP's four refineries in the Houston area. It has the capacity to refine 435,000 barrels of crude oil daily.