KTBS Channel 3 News out of Shreveport LA just interrupted the regular broadcast to report an explosion at the Pennzoil refinery located on Jewella Avenue. Eyewitnesses report seeing the flames from I-20 and debris flying into the air.

One person has been taken to LSU medical center for treatment of injuries.

Cause of explosion unknown at this time.

Will report more as details come in......

-- LZach (lisa@texasnetworks.com), January 18, 2000

Answers

Thanks Lisa,

I think the next few weeks will be interesting, and also unfortunate. I recognize this may have nothing to do with Y2K.

I'm sure the media won't acknowledge any connection, just seems an unlikely number of incidences over a short three weeks with no national news coverage of any substantial nature to get my dander up.

Then again, I'm probably paranoid :) No manipulation of the "free press" could possibly be going on.

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), January 18, 2000.

Thank you for the post Lisa.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 18, 2000.

Polly wanna *cracker*?

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 18, 2000.

Link, please....

-- Verify (and@conclude.com), January 18, 2000.

just posted this because I know that there are a few folks that are keeping a score card on the number of refinery problems....

-- LZach (lisa@texasnetworks.com), January 18, 2000.

verify,

there is no link just yet(the news break was on TV) because it only happened in the last hour or so. And remember, this is Louisiana so it will not make the national news websites...;o)

It will most likely make our newspaper tomorrow and I will post a link then...unless someone else finds it first and posts it here.

-- LZach (lisa@texasnetworks.com), January 18, 2000.

Thanks, for the post. Sincerely hope nobody dies.

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 18, 2000.

LZach, appreciate you zinging me to reality, about bits and pieces never making it to main media. Thank you for information, nothing "booming" here in the "boondocks".

-- Dirt (Ro@dshere.com), January 18, 2000.

Dear Lord, this is so unbelievable, after all the other incidents.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 18, 2000.

Here is a link for news in Shrevesport. It has not been updated since 6PM. Maybe it will be listed on the 10PM report/transcript.

http://www.ksla.com/newsindex.htm

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 18, 2000.

Here is the link to the KSLA Shreveport:

KSLA TV

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000.

The TV station that did the special bulletin was KTBS Channel 3. Their website is www.ktbs.com. (nothing there yet)

An update: they showed live footage of a raging inferno and stated that the fire started in the corner of the refinery closest to Jewella Avenue. More news at 10:00.....

-- LZach (lisa@texasnetworks.com), January 18, 2000.

Looks like they won't have to close it after all. It'll shut itself down. Looks like a small operation to me. There are plenty of big refineries in LA, but this ain't one of them. That being said, it's the third small one that I'm aware of that has had recent major malfunctions. Probably just squirrels!

Thursday January 6 10:28 AM ET Pennzoil-Quaker State to Take Charge NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pennzoil-Quaker State Co. (NYSE:PZL - news), the No. 1 seller of motor oil in the U.S., said Thursday it would take a fourth-quarter $480 million pre-tax charge to close refineries in Rouseville, Pa., and Shreveport, La.

Operations at the small Rouseville refinery, which can process 15,700 barrels per day of crude oil, will stop on Jan. 31 and the nearby packaging plant will close down by June 2000.

The charge, which will total $293 million after-tax, came as result of a review of manufacturing assets and businesses.

``The write-down of the Shreveport and Rouseville refineries reflects the company's focus on its core automotive consumer products business and market conditions for refineries,'' said James J. Postl, the company's president and chief operating office, adding that the 1998 merger between Pennzoil and Quaker State created excess packaging capacity.

Rouseville, located in the heart of the first U.S. oil industry in Western Pennsylvania, is closing due to declining supplies of Appalachian crude oil and rising transportation costs, Postl said.

The Shreveport refinery has a rated capacity to process 46,200 barrels per day of crude oil.

Shares of Pennzoil rose 9/16 to 10-5/8 on the New York Stock Exchange.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), January 18, 2000.

Be sure to check this thread out! http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q- and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002Lxg

-- rumdoodles (rumdoodles@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000.

rumdoodles,
Got an extra space in the URL. Here is the "Link

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), January 18, 2000.

Ok. I give up, all bets are off. Ignore the pattern. I have not seen the refinery flairs at Del. City or Claymont. Guess Del. will be importing. gas $1.50 today.

-- surrounded (hiding@thefirststate.com), January 18, 2000.

Head lines tomorrow, "Cuban boy" That is the only news we get at this burg, and the Cuban boy has been the only news for the last month. I am holding my breath to see the news this morning, My bets are, it will be Cuban boy. He is as popular as OJ was.

-- Notforlong (Fsur@aol.com), January 19, 2000.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGI2SJFPM3C.html

AP Breaking news - Link

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), January 19, 2000.

Here's the story from the Shreveport Times:

Refinery fire injures 2 01/19/00

Two people were injured, one critically, Tuesday night in an explosion and fire at the Pennzoil-Quaker State refinery at 3333 Midway St. "Its a serious incident. Weve got an employee injured. We hope for the best," said Paul Fritz, director of safety and reliability. Fritz and Human Resources Manager Dennis Kinchen said a couple of hours after the explosion that they knew of only one person injured. However, Ray Scippa, the companys Houston-based spokesman, said two people were hurt. Scippa said 35 people were working at the plant at the time. The plant immediately shut down and Fritz said he didnt know when operations would resume. Thomas Brown, 45, was admitted to the burn unit of LSU Hospital- Shreveport. He has worked at the plant 18 years. Scippa said the other injury wasnt nearly as serious, but he didnt know if the person was taken to the hospital. Further details werent immediately available. The explosion and subsequent fire was reported around 7:10 p.m. and happened in a naphtha unifining area. Fritz described naphtha as a gasoline compound. The Shreveport Fire Department reported the situation under control just before 9 p.m. Flames shot from several "flare stacks" at the plant for several hours after the explosion. Fritz said the stacks burn petroleum, crude oil, gasoline and other products as a safety precaution when the plant is shut down. The Caddo-Bossier Office of Emergency Preparedness was notified of the fire, but wasnt needed for assistance such as evacuation, said assistant OEP director Mike Penaluna. Kinchen stressed that "there was absolutely no danger to the community." Thats true, said oil and gas industry retiree Dick Cox of Monroe. "This is not something that would have noxious gases so it wouldnt be harmful to (the surrounding community)," said Cox, former vice president at Southwest Gas Producing Co. and a former senior vice president at Ergon refinery in Vicksburg, Miss. It would take a spark directly above naphtha to make it explode, Cox said. Calefu Malik was talking on the telephone inside his house on Larue Street across Interstate 20 from the plant when he heard a low rumble that "went through the house." He went outside expecting to see a tree on his house until he looked in the direction of the plant and saw "a big ol " mushroom cloud" of smoke and flames. Malik grabbed his JVC camcorder and headed for the plant. He couldnt get any closer than the gate on Jewella Avenue and said he couldnt tell exactly what was on fire. The camcorder captured a substantial fire that appeared to be burning white-hot. Paul Taylor, a driver for Phoenix Gas and Transport, got a much closer look. He was delivering a load of isobutane inside the plant and was well into pumping the 7,800 gallons into lines when he heard a rumble. "I knew there was a fire and it was close," Taylor said. Taylor said it was only minutes before he felt the heat and was glad his coveralls are made of Nomex, a fire-retardant substance. Shreveport Police Sgt. J.J. Roberts arrived on scene and saw flames "shooting up so high an airplane could have landed on them. It scared me." Natasha Green had just picked up her 2-year-old daughter, Destiny, when the neighborhood around her Mangum Street home shook. The next thing she knew she had fallen off her porch and twisted her ankle and friend Michael Floyd, who had grown up near the Pennzoil- Quaker State Refinery, was telling her to run. "It was scary," he said as they watched emergency crews later near the refinerys Midway Street entrance. It was blazing and we were running. Were ready to move now." A few blocks down Midway, Gayle Yelverton and Rhonda Dupuis were moving into the neighborhood when their house shook from explosions at the plant. "It was like a small earthquake," said Yelverton, who said alarms were going off at the refinery as they called 911 several times. She said there were two distinct blasts, a strong initial one that shook the windows and a second one, one she saw. "It was just a like a sheet of white, and then whup!" she said. "I didnt hear an explosion, I just saw the flame," said Demetrius Colman, who had just arrived home from work. He and his grandmother have lived on Lindholm Street, just a softball toss from the eastern edge of the refinery, about a year now. "A big old flame shot up." Eric Chappell and Steven Shoup were inside their house at the corner of Lindholm and Hudson Streets, even closer to the refinery. "It rattled the windows on the house," Chappell said, watching a much larger-than-usual gas burnoff from a stack at the refinery. A slightly acrid smell, much like fluorescent light ballast burning, lingered in the air. "It lit up the whole side of the house," Shoup said. "The flames were a lot higher that they are now." The neighbors were fatalistic about living so close to a refinery. The refinery was established in 1922 as Atlas Processing Co. "If it ever blows, how are we ever going to get out?" Colman asked. "If Atlas goes," Yelverton said, using the old company name, "were all gone, regardless of where we live in Shreveport-Bossier. Were gone from here to Marshall. Pennzoil-Quaker State is under restructuring as of Jan. 6. The Shreveport plant is not targeted to close at this time, but a refinery in Pennsylvania will close by the end of the month. Chelsea Haynes, Abe Levy and Brian Allen contributed to this report. About the blast Tuesdays refinery explosion occurred in an area where employees were working with the substance naphtha. Naphtha is a dark, straw-colored to colorless liquid. It is one of the substances burned off crude oil. Others are natural gas, diesel and kerosene.

Link to story:

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/news/011900/101/2561.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 19, 2000.

Thanks, Carl! ;o)

-- LZach (lisa@texasnetworks.com), January 19, 2000.

Has anyone considered terrorist activity taking things out one by one?

-- Moore dinty Moore (dac@ccrtc.com), January 19, 2000.

Moore dinty Moore,

"Has anyone considered terrorist activity taking things out one by one? "

I hope nobody here has considered it.(grin)
Don't give 'em any sugestions, they just might take you up on it.

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), January 19, 2000.

Dinty,

These events do not fit the profile for terrorism.

U.S. Department of State - Counterterrorism

http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/index.html

~Dee

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 19, 2000.

Seems to me that a SMART terrorist might want to take out infrastructure targets to weaken their enemy. Only dumb (and soon to be dead) terrorists attack the classic targets, and claim responsibility for the media coverage.

Start with the small infrastructure targets - small refineries, port facilities, petro dumps, and move up to big ones like avgas tanks at major airports, LNG tankers in port, you get the idea.

Death of a thousand pin-pricks.

-- Bill (billclo@msgbox.com), January 20, 2000.