Refinery Explosion Rocks Texas Town

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.