Marathon Petroleum company officials in Garyville, Louisiana gave the all clear on air monitoring Tuesday, after the previous day’s powerful explosion at their refinery injured six contract workers. The cause remains under investigation.
Refinery blast scrutiny
On Tuesday, February 22, Marathon Petroleum issued a statement reporting that six contract workers who caught the brunt of the previous day’s explosion only “sustained minor injuries.”
Three were “treated for minor injuries on-site” at the refinery and the remainder were checked out at the hospital, just to be sure. The trio were soon released. The big thing on everyone’s mind was the air quality.
Officials at the refinery assure everyone that air monitoring “was deployed in the community following the explosion.” The good news is “that no hazardous level of emissions were detected.”
They left the equipment running all night “as a precaution” and nothing twitched the needles. They’re still not sure exactly what happened but they’re really glad nobody got seriously hurt.
According to the refinery statement, “safety of responders, employees, contractors and the community are our top priority, and we will conduct a full investigation” to determine the cause.
The known facts, so far, are that a fire broke out at the Garyville facility around 9:30 a.m. Monday morning. Fire crews had it “under control in about an hour.” All “employees and contract workers were quickly accounted for.”
Public shaken for miles
The blast had more of an effect on the local residents than it did on the company. A popular intersection near the refinery “was temporarily blocked to motorists as the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.”
Reports of a “loud boom” near the Marathon plant rolled in to police while social media reports started filtering in from “as far away as Destrehan and Ponchatoula.”
Sound was the only “off-site impact,” Sheriff Mike Tregre assures. Locals in the shadow of the refinery “reported hearing a loud boom some time after 9 a.m., adding that ‘everything shook’ from the shockwave.”
Five miles away in Laplace, Leonce Aydell reports his “wife and family was still in the house, and they came outside to see what was going on.” Residents in St. James and St. Charles parishes also heard it.
Laplace resident Joan Ory relates, “It was like the worst thunderstorm of my life. You could hear the steam hissing after the boom boom.” when her husband Ernest, a retired refinery worker, heard the noise he understood. “I said — whoop — something’s wrong.” David Stevens was about a mile from the fire when he heard the boom.
He activated his cell phone camera and jumped in the car. He’s the one to thank for the images “taken from just outside the facility on Airline Highway.” He’s just happy it wasn’t worse. “Being such a large plant, there’s always a chance of other things happening that can become more critical.“
