Dec.14.06 Imperial Oil Refinery explosion and failed warning

[conestogo_flood]

I was in Corunna, Ontario this past week, which is 5kms south of Sarnia, Ontario and across the river from St. Clair County, Michigan. Sarnia is Lambton County, the chemical valley of Canada with 15 oil refineries.

Alright, on Thursday morning, I was still up watching tv at around 3am, when suddenly there was this sound, that is still haunting me. It sounded like a jumbo jet flying 10 feet over the house. Everything started shaking, and it lasted about 5 seconds. My heart immediately sank, I thought "this is it". I heard my grandparents jump out of bed, and came hurrying down to the basement. We were silent, had no idea what to say, we didn't know what exploded, but if it was a refinery then it could cause more, we didn't know if we should leave the basement because Chemical Valley can go up like an atomic bomb in the event. Down in Detroit, 1 hour down river, people were calling the news stations asking what the explosion sound was.

About 5 minutes after, the EAS hadn't gone off yet on the tv, and I braved going upstairs to turn on the radio. Nothing was on the radio yet, so we decided to open the kitchen window so we could hear the sirens go off. The sirens weren't sounding, so I took a walk 3 houses down the street to the corner, and looking north towards Sarnia the sky was pure orange and glowing. I went into panic mode when I saw it, I couldn't find words or anything, and by 310am people were going outside wondering if they should leave. By now in southern Sarnia people were packing up and leaving, there was no information on what to do. St. Clair Pkwy that runs through Corunna was actually backed up in places due to people leaving. There was reports of light looting in Sarnia too. 911 was overloaded and crashed temporarily because panicked citizens were calling, abd communication lines were overloaded for emergency responders. By about 320am the emergency alert radio system finally sounded, it was the longest alarm I have ever heard, the message seemed like forever. All it stated was an explosion of unkown strength had occured and to stay indoors for more information.

I was getting stressed and stood in the doorway for a smoke, when the Marine City and Marysville, Michigan sirens started to sound across river. At about 330am they were still sounding when Corunna's sirens started up and we still had no idea what was going on. It was the most eeriest sound I have ever heard, people that were outside stopped dead in their tracks and ran home. Finally at about 340am the first radio host came on the radio stating a shelter-in-place had been issued for Sarnia, Point Edward and St. Clair Township where we were. They too had no idea what was happening until almost 4am when the police chief gave an update.

We just sat at the radio in the kitchen, while few updates were even given, my grandma was praying so hard, and I was even saying a few prayers to myself. At about 5am the sirens went off again, and so did the town fire alarm, and the neighbour was the fire chief for the volunteer fire dept, he took off down to the station.

Finally at 630am the shelter-in-place was lifted, but all refineries remained closed, so did River Rd, and Vidal St, the life lines to Corunna.

When the talk shows opened around 10am on the radio, they were flooded with calls about why the emergency warning system had failed. But all that was said by the mayor and police chief that it worked well and they were pleased. In Sarnia, some of the sirens failed to sound, but they could hear them in the distance, so they didn't even know if they should have sheltered-in-place. The cable company failed to use the EAS because no one was in the station to push the button. The radio hosts said they did what they were supposed to, even though it took an hour to get on air.

It was really a disaster, and a few days later two articles appeared in the news paper. One saying "The Warning System Needs Upgrade" and "The System Worked Well". My grandma was thinking about purchasing a weather radio for these situations to wake her up in the night even, so I called Community Awareness Emergency Response to ask, the girl said she thinks they might, but it would be better if I called the police chief to ask. CAER is what controls all the warning systems, and they didn't even know.

This is the CAER website if you are interested, the information isn't up-to-date, it's a few years old in some places. http://www.caer.ca/index.html

Sarnia has over 20 warning sirens, and half probably didn't sound. I will post pictures of the fire later.

[conestogo_flood]

The London Free Press...

SARNIA -- To Paul Noble, it felt like a small earthquake was rattling his Sarnia home.

Mike Bradley, the city's mayor, said it sounded more like an F-18 fighter jet flying 30 metres above the city for two hours.

But by any description, the fiery 3 a.m. explosion that yesterday rocked a Chemical Valley oil refinery -- and startled scores of residents out of their sleep -- rattled the city and raised concerns over how such incidents are handled.

"I've lived here my whole life and I've never heard anything like that," said Crissy Sinopole, whose family was jolted awake by the blast a few blocks away.

The explosion happened in Imperial Oil's hydrocracking unit, where heavy oil is refined into lighter fuel and diesel. About a half-dozen people were working near the unit, though no one was injured.

The subsequent decompression, which lasted about two hours, was described as sounding like a jet engine.

"It was so loud there was no way (anybody) could sleep," Sinopole said.

Though the speedy response of police and firefighters, along with the refinery's own fire crews drew praise, Bradley was irked by the initially slow movement of information from Imperial Oil officials to city hall.

"We had trouble getting hold of anyone, and by the time we did get someone it was quite a good deal into the emergency," Bradley said, adding he and the city's emergency response team planned to meet with Imperial Oil officials today.

"We'll try to correct it."

Officials with the refinery didn't comment on that issue, but did vow a full probe into how the explosion happened.

"This is disconcerting," said Phil Vallance of Imperial Oil. "This shouldn't have happened and we need to do a thorough investigation to understand what did happen here."

The sound of the explosion was enough to disturb sleeping residents at the opposite end of the city and as far away as Port Huron, police said.

Though a so-called "shelter in place" advisory was ordered -- in such cases people close their windows and doors and shut off their furnaces -- air-quality testing showed no "off-site" impact, Vallance said.

No homes were evacuated.

The fire, which turned the area sky a bright orange, was brought under control yesterday morning. But given the fuel already in the unit, a controlled burn continued throughout the day.

It was unclear when it will burn itself out, said Imperial Oil spokesperson Julie Ferguson. Except the hydrocracking unit, which processes 18,000 barrels daily, the rest of the facility continued operations.

Police blocked off Vidal Street, which runs beside the huge plant, for 12 hours while firefighters used hoses to cool down the steel tower and scores of interconnecting pipes. Firefighters left the scene about 4 p.m.

One industry observer estimated the loss through actual structural damage and lost productivity could creep into the millions of dollars.

It's been more than 10 years since a major blaze tore through another Chemical Valley plant when lightning struck a tank at the Sunoco refinery July 19, 1996. It burned for close to eight hours and no one was injured.

Yesterday, some Sarnia residents complained it took too long for information about the early-morning explosion to be broadcast. Bradley, however, said city officials had details on local radio within an hour.

Sarnia police also said a main snag in the aftermath was the reaction of about 150 local residents who clogged up 911 lines phoning for information.

Bradley, who could see the blaze from his home about a half-kilometre away, was pleased overall with how city officials handled the incident. But he admitted it initially had him fearing the worst.

"The noise was (a) swooshing, jet-takeoff sound -- you're almost waiting to hear another explosion," he said.

[Lindaloo]

Last week there was a booming noise here and my windows shook, my plates in my hutch fell over. I felt my whole house shake. I went outside and all my neighbors were outside scratching their heads. Local authorities said it was a sonic boom. I do not buy that because I have felt a sonic boom before, this was different.

It caused alarms to go off and my animals were a nervous wreck. Also caused traffic signals to fail and loss of electricity in parts of the county.