Refinery Explosion Rocks Texas Town

At Least Four People Injured, Shook Buildings Miles Away

(AP/CBS)  An explosion rocked a west Texas oil refinery Monday in a violent blast that shook buildings miles away and injured at least four people, according to the town's mayor.

Big Spring Mayor Russ McEwen told a news conference that one of those workers was sent to a burn unit.

The fire sparked by the blast was under control Monday morning, Lewis said. The Dallas-based company does not know what caused the explosion.

The blast sent black smoke billowing into the sky, closed schools, shut down an interstate and left residents rattled.

"It was extremely scary. You shook you were so scared," said Laura McEwen, the wife of Mayor McEwen who lives about two miles from the refinery. "Our walls shook. It jolted your bed. It was like an earthquake."

According to the CBS News affiliate KOSA's Web site anyone living within a mile of the plant was asked to evacuate.

John Moseley, managing editor of the Big Spring Herald whose downtown office is also about two miles from the refinery, said, "I thought it would knock the walls down."

Two elementary schools were evacuated, then classes were canceled at all nine campuses in the Big Spring school district, said assistant superintendent Carie Dunnam.

Dunnam said bus routes were affected by road closures and that emergency officials were warning of the potential for more explosions. School officials were asking parents to come pick up their children as soon as possible, Dunnam said.

The explosion forced open the doors of the school district's administration building about four miles from the plant, Dunnam said.

"Literally pieces of my ceiling came on top of my head," she said.

The refinery employs about 170 people and produces about 70,000 barrels a day.

Interstate 20 was shut down near the plant, Big Spring police spokesman Roger Sweatt said.

"There's some fire and a whole bunch of smoke," Sweatt said.

[antoniof123]

Oh man that is bad glad no one was hurt.

[cyberus-2009]

I too am glad no one was hurt ....

... however on the cynical side .. any bets that gas prices will jump due to a "potential shortage"?

[hwrd69]

cyberus beat me to it... ditto

[aeasus]

OPEC cuts production and refineries get blown up = price increase at the pump :(

So sad America allows itself to stay hostage to limited rescourses.

[kuptis]

Wow. About time the major networks picked this up! I live on the west side of Big Spring; the refinery is on the east side. The explosion happened at about 08:20 central time.

When it happened I heard a very loud thunderous roar, the window I was next to rattled, the floor shook; I thought someone had set off dynamite. I tried calling the police but the lines were busy so I went out to see what the neighbors thought. As soon as I opened the door which faces east toward the refinery I saw the mushroomish plume of smoke and gasped.

Luckily, as this writing, 4 injuries have been reported: 1 motorist passersby on the interstate, 1 worker, and 2 from flying debris; and no fatalities. The 1 injured worker was taken to Scenic Mountain Medical Center (SMMC) here in Big Spring.

I''m getting most of my info from our local radio station KBST (kbst.com). CBS7 (cbs7.com) reports that the blast was felt as far as Gardendale, Greenwood, and Eastern Midland in the Midland, TX area which is 30-45 miles west of Big Spring.

According to an Alon official, David Foster, the explosion originated in the life-gas area. There is still fire but much less than an hour ago. There is still a lot of dark-grey smoke and I-20 is closed indefinitely between Hwy 350 and Salem Rd. A lot of smoke is drifting to the northwest.

[krocks04]

Hey cyberus...do you know anything about big spring? its a small town. There won''t be a shortage of gas.
This is my home town. I have friends that work at the refinery. I don''t want you or anyone to talk about this matter lightly. Its a tragedy and I''m so thankful nobody got killed.

[ask1tobe1]

This is my hometown I graduated in 88, I was just there last weekend. I''m trying to get updates to see if I need to get my grandmother out of the town.

[baddog777]

Wow. I grew up in Big Spring and I''m supposed to move back next week. Glad that nobody was killed.

[ask1tobe1]

I think the Bush family had some ties in with Sid Richardson way back in the day. I''m not even sure if Sid has anything going on at stinky cosden!

[bdrlnt4rl]

i have a relative that live an hour away form big spring and they said they felt the shockwave from the blast. can you imagine what would happen down in houston or corpis christi????

[ask1tobe1]

back in 87 or 88 a small portion of the plant blew up like today and the high school is about 5 miles away and that day at lunch the explosion shook the 12 ft. windows like they where paper.

[harrydoghiny]

Yep, gas went up 10 cents a gallon here about an hour ago. Funny when oil prices drop it''s a different story. Mission accomplished, ***!!

[caliengineer]

Some oil lines in mccook, tx blew up a few days ago. Now a refinery?

To the Obama scandal poster, below: Don''t be so sure that you are not playing part to a Clinton maneuver. Remember that all their old business partners and friends are dead, along with Mr. Clinton''s body guard troop - dead. Sinclair just has to hold out for a few weeks, giving Hitlery the advantage. Very suspicious!

[berniepeders]

What in hell does this story have to do with Obama? *** you people, at least post your comments about this ridiculous political c.r.a.p on a story about politics, would you?

[berniepeders]

I said d a m n you people.

[the74blaster]

America wants to know: where''''s the media coverage on this???? We deserve to hear the truth!

Posted by TruthBeTold,

I take it that you believe everything you see on the internet? However, I believe we will see some $ 5.00/gallon gas since everyone is betting on the features due to a bear market.

[yourweldguru]

Why nobody asking what unit was involved and if it was undergoing repairs or is it just as likely rthe cause was operations fault? Too much of this is going on and why isn''t the insurance co''s getting involved to curb what seems to amount to funded replacement of old units and at the same time assuring price hikes?

[ontheleft]

I filled up my gas tank earlier today. The price was $3.09. When I went inside to pay for it, the station owner said that he just heard about an explosion at a refinery in Texas, so he had to charge me $3.29 a gallon due to supply concerns.

[jerkeedoodle]

ontheleft,RE:I filled up...Report the S.O.B. to your states attorney general.That''s price gouging.They quit that BS here in Missouri,after our attorney general started hitting them with fines for using disasters as an excuse to stomp the heck out of everyones'' wallet.Some of the more notorious companies went "titsup",after he got through with them.

[jerkeedoodle]

I was curious as to why the name of the company that owns the refinery was omitted from the article,so I googled "Big Spring refinery".Check it out,ALON USA,a division of ALON Isreal.Has anyone else noticed what a "great" job the "american" oil industry has been doing with all of its'' new foreign owners?

[gce65]

No loss, no environmental damage...it''s only Texas!

[quetzal0666]

for a while i thought it was the BP Plant going 4th of July again in Houston......
then i saw the pictures, and well its really trajic in any case, Big Spring Texas, nothing there but oilwells and pumpjacks,

[kevzgrl]

Yep, here goes the gas price rollercoaster again, only does anyone else notice that they hike the price when something like this happens, then drop it again real quick, but not as much as they hiked it? Then, next weekend comes, people travel on the weekend, so they hike it again, and then drop it, but not as much as they hiked it, and etc, etc, etc.....

Last week was the Venezuelan threat/cutoff - this week, the refinery blast - wonder what "disaster" will happen next week, so they can raise prices on us yet again.....

I don''t know about any of you, but something smells fishy to me, and it AIN''T the smoke from this fire.

[hbevis]

RE: ontheleft

I HOPE YOU DID NOT PAY THE $3.29 PRICE HE WANTED. WHEN SOMETHING IS POSTED AT A CERTAIN PRICE, IT IS ILLEGAL TO TRY AND CHARGE MORE.

[tail_honcho]

Better break-out the moped!

[newsjunky5]

While I''m against increasing our purchase of foreign oil, I think it would be prudent at this juncture to expel Texas from the Union. They have been a drain on our country since 2000.

[knyghtwolf]

I used to live in Big Spring, too bad, so sad, my ex-nightmare lives there, hope she got her butte rocked out of bed, she needs to move that earthquake maker she''s sporting now. Her first ex died from an Auto-erotica Asphyxia, which means he choked to death while choking his chicken, and he worked at both the plant there and the prison. Their daughter was 7 when he died and is now 20 years old and has had nine abortions that I know of. Why? No idea but she is as sick as her father was. Funny seeing Big Spring in the news again, last time it was hail stones and murder.

[gunnerv1]

And Gasoline went up a quarter a Gallon.

[mediaeditor-2009]

Good eye Jerkeedoodle! To omit the name of the company that owns the refinery is simply poor journalism.

[cj7jeepstir]

Good eye Jerkeedoodle! To omit the name of the company that owns the refinery is simply poor journalism.

Posted by mediaeditor at 12:04 PM : Feb 19, 2008

It wasn''t poor journalism. It was intentional. Politics.

[mollydtt]

It is owned by the Dallas-based company, Alon, USA.