The Big Bang — Cause of explosion is under investigation

Officials have confirmed that no injuries occurred in a Feb. 12 explosion at the Wyoming Refining Co. refinery  that shook homes across Newcastle and has left the refinery idle while the facility is assessed.

The company is working with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality “both in response to the incident and in any following investigation,” according to a website that Par Pacific Holdings has set up regarding the incident.

“The Newcastle Refinery remains idled in a safe condition as work continues to assess damage and keep the remaining refinery from further damage due to freezing temperatures,” the update said. “No release of petroleum vapors or other harmful chemicals has been detected from the refinery. There are no reported impacts to people or property beyond the refinery perimeter.”

Three refinery workers who were evaluated early Feb. 13 did not need medical treatment or first aid, according to a statement the Houston, Texas-based energy company that owns and operates the refinery, made at 9 a.m. Feb. 14 on the incident website. 

Newcastle Police Chief Derek Thompson said the first call regarding the explosion came in at about 10:46 p.m., and he believes the incident occurred a few minutes earlier than that. The on-duty dispatcher and several on-duty law enforcement officers, from both the Newcastle Police Department and Weston County Sheriff’s Office, heard the explosion, and many people called 911 after the thunderous blast was heard and felt by community membersThompson, said he both heard and felt the explosion from his home.

Police Sgt. Nick Kaminski “immediately began searching for the origin of the explosion” and was already “in the area of the incident” by the time the first call came in, according to Thompson.

Thompson told the dispatch center to put emergency medical services and fire personnel on standby. He also asked refinery safety personnel whether an evacuation was necessary and what they believed might have happened to cause the explosion.

“Based on the information provided by refinery personnel, there was no known need to immediately evacuate nearby residents,” he said.

Thompson said Kaminiski learned from refinery employees near the scene that all refinery personnel were accounted for and that there was no reason to believe that there was a threat of a secondary explosion or hazardous materials release.

Thompson said he “was informed they suspected a heater unit had exploded in the refinery. This information had not been verified at the time, but was later confirmed.”

In a press release, Par Pacific Holdings called the incident “an operational upset” and reported that nobody was injured and that fence-line monitoring showed no safety or environmental concerns. However, the refinery is being idled “in the near term” as personnel investigate the incident and decide when they can safely restart the facility.

“We routinely monitor the air quality at our fence-line to ensure we are in full compliance with all permit requirements and environmental regulations,” Dallas Scholes, Par Pacific Holdings director of government and public affairs, told the News Letter Journal the evening of Feb. 13. “We have initiated additional monitoring around our facility to ensure there has been no impact to the community from the incident.”

Scholes said the incident involved a heater that heats the oil before the refinery finishes converting it into diesel, jet fuel and gasoline.

“The damage to the heater has disrupted our ability to fully operate the facility at this time,” he said.

Scholes said the facility is being idled to ensure the safety of the employees assessing the situation and establishing the company’s response. After that assessment, the company “will have a much better idea” of how long the facility will remain idle.

Scholes was unable to state how long the assessment would take, what risks would be involved in restarting the facility, what happened to the heater, whether the heater exploded, and how many and which refinery personnel were present or nearby.

“These are all good questions, but none of which I have answers to at this time,” Scholes said. “All I can say is that no one was injured, and the refinery will remain idled in the near term as refinery personnel investigate the incident and evaluate when to safely restart the facility. We will not know what happened fully until the investigation is completed. Right now we are focused on keeping our employees and the community safe.”

Thompson said he has not yet received any specific information regarding what caused the incident at the refinery. He explained that the body of the refinery is not annexed into the city limits so the police department doesn’t have jurisdiction over that portion and was only assisting with the incident and addressing safety concerns for people nearby.

Weston County Sheriff Bryan Colvard told the NLJ the morning of Feb. 13 that Weston County Sheriff’s Office, Newcastle Police Department, Newcastle Fire Department and Weston County Fire Protection District personnel responded, and their initial action was to shut down the roads around the refinery so they could better determine what was happening. Colvard said his office’s response included himself, Undersheriff Dan Fields, a sergeant and a deputy.

Assisting police, fire personnel blocked traffic around the refinery, from Main Street to around the bypass to Stampede Street. Newcastle Fire Chief James Curren told the NLJ the morning of Feb. 12 that the department was called to respond, but they did not enter the refinery. Curren said he believes that 20-25 personnel responded, via the city command vehicle, the county command vehicle, two county fire trucks and two officers’ personal vehicles. Some fire personnel also came from the fire hall. 

Thompson said law enforcement personnel first told responding fire and EMS personnel to set up at Newcastle High School, but upon the first responders’ arrival, all of them instead were used to close roadways around the refinery, as a precaution, for about 20 minutes.

“Once refinery personnel confirmed there was no threat to the area immediately surrounding the area of the incident, they advised first responders they could release traffic around the refinery area,” Thompson said.

All first responders were released from the scene at about 11:35 p.m., according to Thompson. Colvard said they “cleared” around 11:30 p.m. and noted they had already sent personnel to dispatch to start troubleshooting the 911 lines.

“There was a secondary event that kind of looked like it was power-related or electricity-related,” Colvard said, “and then once we got the report that everybody was accounted for and no injuries and they had it under control, we cleared and went to the dispatch center because we lost our 911 phone line in that power issue.”

The Newcastle Police Department announced in a Facebook post made around 11:45 p.m. on Feb. 12 that there had been an incident in the refinery and  directed people to call another number to report any emergencies because the 911 line was down. A 4 a.m. post on Feb. 13 confirmed that all refinery personnel were safe and that the phone lines were restored.

Colvard indicated the work with the dispatch center culminated around 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., but noted that the office hasn’t yet completely debriefed the incident.

According to Thompson, it appears that the power bump or surge related to the incident at the refinery caused the 911 system outage.

“The system that handles 911 calls, and the other systems in place for the dispatch center, are all protected by backup power and surge protection equipment to prevent these types of outages,” he said. “This particular event appears to have been unique in some way (not just a normal power outage) that caused the equipment in the 911 system to malfunction.”

According to Thompson, the secondary system that collects information from 911 calls was still working, but didn’t indicate any 911 calls were coming in.

“As far as we know, there were no 911 calls that were not fielded after the outage was discovered,” he said.

Jason Wille, Range Telephone Cooperative Inc.’s chief marketing officer, said that after police notified the company that the 911 system had gone down, “our technicians ran as quickly over as they could” to begin troubleshooting and restoring the 911 center in Newcastle. He said he’s not sure of the exact timing, but the technicians were on scene “pretty quick.”

“We didn’t see anything on our equipment as far as having any issues, but we never rule anything out at that point,” Wille said.

He said it’s his understanding that Range’s equipment, which is the “switching equipment” that provides service to the 911 center, was functioning properly but because of the power outage, other equipment that is not affiliated with Range was experiencing issues.

“We worked with the police department and got them up and going as quickly as we could,” Wille said.

Newcastle Mayor Tyrel Owens expressed gratitude that nobody was seriously injured or killed. 

“We thank God for that,” he said.

Owens said he didn’t hear the explosion because he was sleeping, but he saw community members sharing information on Facebook, and he checked at the city office to see if any concerned citizens came in. The people who were working at the office said they hadn’t heard any community concerns.

Owens said he hopes the refinery is able to resume regular operations as soon as possible and that the incident isn’t a major setback for their operation.

The company said in a Feb. 14 update that the refinery is working with suppliers and customers to “minimize any interruption in delivery of fuels.”

“We are very thankful everyone is safe after an incident like this,” Thompson said. “As always, we are very grateful for our first responders (communications, fire, EMS, and law enforcement personnel) who are always ready at a moment’s notice when they receive the call.

SIDEBAR

To learn more

The Wyoming Refining Co. has set up an incident response website, https://newcastleheaterresponse.com, to provide updates on the response to the Feb. 12 “Newcastle Heater Incident.” The website also has a tab of resources that provide information about the company.

Ed. note: This is a developing story. More information will be released when available. The News Letter Journal’s YouTube channel has posted a video that includes photos of the heater and the refinery. Photo can also be found here.