A massive fire and series of explosions rocked a South Philadelphia refinery complex, the largest on the East Coast, early Friday morning. The blast jolted Philadelphians awake miles from the scene, but no major injuries were reported.
The blaze at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery erupted shortly after 4 am City emergency management sounded early warning sirens at 5:30 am and issued a shelter-in-place for the area immediately around the complex. It was later lifted.
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Some residents in Philadelphia said the explosions knocked art off their walls. The blasts were felt as far as South Jersey.
“I thought it was a meteor or something,” a resident who lives next to the complex said after seeing a mushroom-shaped cloud rising from the facility.
Officials have not released details on what caused the explosion. The Chemical Safety Board an independent, non-regulatory federal agency said it will deploy a four-person team to investigate the explosion NBC10 said.
The fire was contained shortly before 6 am, officials said. The fire was still burning as of 9:08 a.m., a refinery spokeswoman said in an email.
The spokeswoman said PES officials have not determined what product is burning, but believe it could be propane. That differs from Philadelphia Fire Department reports.
At a news conference, Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy said vat of butane had ignited and eventually exploded. A series of smaller explosions erupted as the fire worked its way through the tangle of pipes carrying fuel across the complex. In all, three explosions took place.
Workers were on site at the time of the explosion, but were far enough away to avoid serious harm, Murphy said. Four refinery staff members suffered minor injuries and were treated at the site, a refinery spokeswoman said.
Large pieces of debris were thrown blocks away and rained down onto streets and traffic lights. A plume of thick, black smoke billowed east from the large complex near Philadelphia International Airport and over portions of South Philadelphia, the Delaware River and into South Jersey.
The smoke could be dangerous, according to Peter DeCarlo, a Drexel University professor, and air-quality expert.
“Immediate exposure can trigger asthma and other issues,” he cautioned. “If it were me, what I would do is leave the area for as much of the day as possible.”
The Philadelphia Department of Health, however, said that they measured the air and has “no findings that would point to any immediate danger in the surrounding community at this time.”
The Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery is the largest single source of particulate pollution in the Philadelphia area even when there isn’t an emergency.
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