Up to that point, the gravity of the situation hadn’t really sunk in. I personally thought the Salt Lake City media had overreacted a bit over the incident. After all, we experienced the incident first hand when the Clipper computers shut down and our lights went out briefly a little past 9 a.m. on Nov. 4. Then our building shook with a crash so violent that some thought a jet engine had fallen on our roof while others were sure a huge truck had crashed into our building.
In fact, I ran out and raced around our plant, sure I would find a terrible accident scene and a corner of our building missing. The impact was so violent that in those first few moments I couldn’t even fathom it could be due to a blast of air.
I was actually one of the first, if not the first, news people on the scene that day. And by that time, the fire was already out. I had gone to the scene fearing I’d encounter dead or wounded and total chaos. When everything seemed calm at the plant not long after the incident, I downgraded it in my mind to being just a loud noise.
But when federal investigators said it was a miracle that no one was killed or injured, the magnitude of the averted disaster became clear. They said that had the timing of the blast been altered by just a few moments earlier or later, a worker taking readings near the failed pipe or a passing FrontRunner train might have been seriously impacted.
That miracle increased as the regulators said several curious things:
1. This incident, considering the blast was felt for miles, had the greatest impact outside the fence line of any refinery or chemical plant they had investigated.
2. That the residents whose homes were damaged were clearly too close, making it unwise to live there.
3. That there seemed to be discrepancies in the plant records, some of which showed pipes significantly thinner than reported – sometimes just one-fourth their documented thickness.
4. That three Utah incidents this year (two at Silver Eagle and one at Tesoro) among five refineries was vastly more than should be expected.
All this leads to an odd picture of a refinery that already suffered a fire earlier this year, that had pipes too thin to handle the pressures expected, and the undergirding concern about how those nearby houses were allowed to build so close to danger.
So far, the investigators aren’t quick to point the finger at Silver Eagle. They praised it for voluntarily shutting down so quickly last Friday, and the problem of pipes being to thin may be due to the work of outside contractors.
The refinery certainly can’t be blamed for the houses built so close to the plant. That’s decided by builders and city planners.
But it is clear that we’ve lost our innocence. People who until this month didn’t give a second thought to living near a refinery are suddenly quite concerned.
Those with homes near the blast area must be wondering what will happen to their property values. And there seems to be real anxiety among those in nearby cities.
There even is likely to be hand-wringing and finger pointing in the months ahead. Whatever happens, it may take years before we’ll be so trusting again. If ever.
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