RENTON, Wash. (AP) -- A section of a gasoline pipeline exploded in flames over the weekend, forcing the closing of the 400-mile system and disrupting fuel deliveries.
Nobody was injured in the blast Sunday at the Olympic Pipe Line Co. pumping station in Renton, a Seattle suburb. Workers reported seeing 20-foot flames leaping from a test line that runs off the main pipeline.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation, and the company shut down the entire pipeline as a precaution, said Bobby Talley, Olympic's president. It will be shut for days, he said.
Officials found a pin-sized hole in the test line, but did not know what caused it or the fire. Between 3,300 and 10,000 gallons of fuel leaked from the three-quarter-inch line, much of it burning, Talley said.
``This is an isolated incident. ...It's not an integrity issue with the main line,'' Talley said. ``We're taking every safety precaution necessary to ensure we understand what the problem is.''
Officials at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport asked airlines not to refuel at the airport.
``We've asked the airlines to, when possible, fly in here with enough fuel on board to get to their next destination,'' airport spokesman Bob Parker said Monday. ``We think we have enough fuel on site to get us through late afternoon or early evening on Wednesday.''
Alaska Airlines spokesman Lou Cancelmi said the carrier had already started fueling its airplanes' tanks in cities including San Francisco and San Jose to reduce its reliance on fuel from Seattle.
But, Cancelmi said, Alaska and other airlines may have to consider canceling flights beginning Wednesday night if the pipeline is not fixed.
The pipeline moves 12 million gallons of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel daily.
Three people died in 1999 when a section of the pipeline ruptured in Bellingham. The pipeline spilled nearly 237,000 gallons of gasoline that exploded in a fireball along a creek.
