Document e666QKpRGX6aZb604DO0rM6y

Ir. 7. G. Martin, COPI October 6, Dear Jack : I will give you, as briefly ns possible, nil the details pertaining to the fire at the Chsnplin Refining Conoany, Enid, Oklahoma, on Thursday, October Onci, I 73O, at :r- ....I. ' ' The circulating pump at the Ethyl plant t s located in a email room, which was reasonably air-tight. It seems that in starting the pump on the morning above men tioned, there was some difficulty-in. relieving a vapor lock, mhieh I believe was caused b y a 1200 ft. suction line. In relieving the vapor lock, the pump operator screwed a pateock completely out, which left an opening of at least a quarter of an inch in the head of the pump.. The pump was again started, but after a few minutes of operation, it was necessary to shut dona, and relieve a similar condition. It seems that In starting the pump the second time, the switch caused a spark, which in turn resultad in an ugdosion. I imagine that inis room mist have bad very class to a carburetor mixture by this time. 'All .paints in the snitch mentioned above cere supposed to be submerged in oil, but r;e have no may of knowing that they vers, then I inspected the pump, after the fire, the petcock I have above mentioned vas not scraued been, but was, on the floor beside the pump, which proves that at the time of the explosion, and for some ^wine after that, v-e mist nava had an unusual amount of gasoline vapors in and around this p\ '[> Shortly after the explosion, all lines mere cut off leading to the ethyl blearing plant and the ten men mho cere engaged in firs fighting centered their attentions on the gasoline, which was burning in the pump room. It seems that in a very short time, the roof cf the blending plant collapsed, which covered the entire storage platform uni blending platform, causing an unusual amount of haat in and around the Sthyl drums. .. The first drum of Ethyl fluid to explode naturally had less heat and did not burn completely, spilling fluid on tvo tonic cars which core at the loading rack at this time, and also spilling fluid on the nixing platform and ground for a radius of ten to fifteen feet. After the first explosion, the men who cere fighting the fire noticed a very peculiar odor. hr. Slater, the refinery superintendent, realised that the fumes cere:-a* serious and had all men with their fomita machines moved around at a safe distance of ap proximately' 150 ft., with the wind to their backs. They remained at these points until 0000614 all thirty-seven drums of Sthyl fluid had exploded. After the first explosion, there was a very short period of time elapsed u n t i l the. second drum exploded, but at this explosion, they had an entirely different condition. The second drum to explode came out, in my opinion, as a gas, which went straight up approximately 200 ft, then drifted with the wind, burning more or less as a huge ball, with a bluish and yellowish tint. The remaining 35 drums did likewise. There was no fluid apparently after the first explosion, which was very fortunate for all concerned. bi I received word of this fire at 2:15 Thursday afternoon and immediately left for Enid, and found the following conditions. ' . As shown in picture 7fl, the Ethyl plant was a total loss. Picture :f2 shows the East end of the blending plant, the ground beneath and for a radius of 25 or 30 ft'' had a small amount of Sthyl fluid and an unusually strong odor -.was apparent, as you ap proached the blending plant from any direction. Hie first thing I did, upon my arrival. N5484 Mr. J. G. Martin #2 C0 was to have them discontinue flooding this area Tilth water, which they had been doing for several hours, causing the fluid to float down a ditch for a distance of 200 ft. After dis continuing this, I next had them bury the ditch and drain with four feat of dirt, vie next unloaded some fifteen to twenty truck leads of fuller's earth 'which was scattered over the entire area surrounding the Ethyl blending plant. We continued to haul dirt and earth, until al odor and signs of Ethyl fluid had been completely buried. I next inspected the Ethyl platform itself, and found, .to my surprise, that there -was no fluid whatsoever in any drum, and very little odor. That little odor there was, was fluid which had been spilled at the explosion of the first drum. After removing all drums, pipe connections, wire fence, ate., the platform was flooded vdth kerosene five tines, and mors dirt added to our fill. The drums, fence, pipe connections, et,c. have been hauled to a vacant piece of property owned by 3Champlin and burned a second time. Picture was taken from the top of a tank car and shows very plainly the conditions of the drums immediately after the fire. This part of the plat form contained nothing but full drums end still there was no odor or any sign of Ethyl fluid. I feel quite positive that this is true, due to the fact that I 'was the first man to inspect these drums and in fact, was the first man to approach the area itself, after the first was extinguished. Picture $4 is nothing mors than a view of two Ethyl drums showing exactly what happened to the ends, also, showing how clean they were inside. The drum on the right contains some water but no fluid. Summing up the entire situation, I would like at this time to offer a few suggestions, as well as comments, from a personal viewpoint. In the first place, no circulating pump in an Ethyl plant should have a 1200 ft. suction line for this .reason? a line 1200 ft long naturally has an unusually large amount of gasoline vapor or will have as soon as the pump is started. The pump I am referring to is an electric driven centrifical pump, vdth a capacity of 1,000 gallons nor minute. There is a possibility that the explosion could have been avoided had we been able to flood the platform with a sprinkler system, which should have had a tendency to keep our drums cool long enough^ for the fire to have been put out. I firmly believe that each and every gaso line' plantj including tank car installations, should be equipped with the most efficient sprinkler system possible, and if possible, a valve at a safe distance from the plant where in case of necessity, if a fire has started, this valve could be opened without involving any great danger. Personally, I believe steam pumps are much more satisfactory in every respec^ . surely there could not be enough difference between the steam and electricity for us to ' ' take any chance whatsoever of having this happen again. I would recommend that all Ethyl Gasoline plants use steam pumps only, if it is at all possible. If not, the pumps should be isolated to some degree which will possibly avoid a recurrence of this kind. I sincerely hope the above report covers this accident enough in detail, so that we may be able to avoid a similar accident. I have given you this report to the bast of my knowledge and I handled the situation to the best of my ability. ' Hoping the above meets with your approval, I am, Yours very truly, (Signed) Bob Graham MX 0000615