Propane Tank Explodes at Ky. Recycling Center

-- Nov. 14-- A fire explosion that could be felt and heard from over a mile away happened Thursday at the Eastern Kentucky Recycling Center in Williamsburg. Williamsburg Fire Chief James Privett said the explosion happened around 3:20 p.m. when a worker was moving around a pile of scrap metal with an excavator and had no idea that a propane tank was under the dirt. When the propane tank was hit, it exploded.

Source The Times-Tribune, Corbin, Ky.

Nov. 15, 2011

Nov. 14-- A fire explosion that could be felt and heard from over a mile away happened Thursday at the Eastern Kentucky Recycling Center in Williamsburg.

Williamsburg Fire Chief James Privett said the explosion happened around 3:20 p.m. when a worker was moving around a pile of scrap metal with an excavator and had no idea that a propane tank was under the dirt. When the propane tank was hit, it exploded.

"Luckily the tank wasn't full and no one got hurt," said Privett. "It was loud enough that it shook the fire hall here."

Privett said the fire spread to the surrounding field and only took about 10 minutes to extinguish.

About 10 firefighters from the Williamsburg Fire Department were on the scene and there was no reported damage to the building "but the excavator suffered damage to the back," Privett said.