Quick action by Philadelphia firefighters Monday night prevented a two-alarm industrial fire from becoming worse, officials said.
Crews were able to shut off a valve and keep 1.5 million gallons of ethanol from igniting at a Kinder Morgan chemical facility at Point Breeze Terminal in southwest Philadelphia, WPVI-TV reports. When firefighters performed the high-risk maneuver, the fire had been elevated to a second alarm, and flames were burning at around 1,000 degrees in an area between two ethanol storage tanks.
"We determined, of course, the best way to eliminate the longer-term risk was to put that fire out," Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel told WPVI. "And again, not by putting it out. We actually had to close the valves first to stop the product, then extinguish the fire and now the cleanup begins, led by Kinder Morgan and their contractors."
The fire broke out at about 6:45 p.m.,at the 26-acre facility, which has around eight tanks containing petroleum, gasoline, ultra-low sulfur diesel, ethanol and biodiesel. Employees were able to escape the plant safely, and no workers or firefighters were reported injured from the incident.
It's not known how much ethanol was released before the valve was shut off. Fire and company officials believe it was kept to an area near the tank, and they will be running air quality tests at the plant.
Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire. The blaze was not related to June's explosion and fire at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery.
