THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANACORTES, Wash. — Firefighters were able to extinguish a fire that started Friday in a diesel storage tank at the Shell Puget Sound refinery.
Three employees were treated for minor injuries, Shell spokesman Brian Sibley said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but operations at the refinery were not interrupted, he said.
The fire broke out shortly after noon, according to a Shell news release. The immediate area was evacuated, and the fire was reported extinguished shortly after 2 p.m.
The fire was confined to a 79,000-barrel tank that contained 59,000 barrels of diesel fuel, according to Mark Watkinson of the Skagit County Department of Emergency Management. He said it’s unclear how much of the fuel burned, but none spilled on the ground.
The Shell fire crew extinguished the fire, although the fire chiefs from the Anacortes and District 13 fire departments were on hand, Watkinson said. Fire crews from Tesoro and BP also responded, Shell said.
The refinery processes about six million gallons of crude oil a day and employs more than 400 workers, along with several hundred contractors.
Information from: Skagit Valley Herald, http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com
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