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Explosion rocks Texas City refinery

An explosion rocked the BP Amoco plant in Texas City.

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There were no reports of injuries, said B.C. Clawson, Texas City emergency management coordinator. BP spokeswoman Annie Smith said all workers had been accounted for. She did not know how many people were on duty.

Smith said it wasn't immediately clear whether the fire began in a furnace in a gasoline producing unit at the plant.

Clawson said the request for people to stay in their homes was lifted at 9 p.m., about two hours after the fire broke out.

"I saw the smoke and thought it was a house fire at first," Texas City resident Jim Malm, who works in oil movements at BP, told the Texas City Sun. "But the smoke kept receding, then building and kept getting bigger, and I realized it was at the plant."

Some College of the Mainland evening classes were dismissed and the Texas City-LaMarque high school baseball game was called because of the fire. Players on the Texas City junior varsity baseball team were initially being sheltered at the college campus.

Roads leading into the petrochemical complex were closed as a precaution.

Clawson said there was no danger of the fire spreading.

"We were told that it's contained in the unit," Clawson said.

The Texas City refinery is the largest of BP's four refineries in the Houston area. It has the capacity to refine 435,000 barrels of crude oil daily.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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