Re: Everyone allright at BIG SPRING, Texas
Heycods and JB are that way but I think Big Spring is still quite a ways off from them. That was one heck of an explosion. Heres the story-
There has been an explosion at an oil refinery in Big Spring, located about 250 miles west of Fort Worth, near Midland.
The refinery is owned by Dallas-based Alon USA. It employs about 170 people and produces about 70,000 barrels of oil a day.
Blake Lewis, a spokesman for the company, said that all of the refinery's employees had been accounted for about one hour after the explosion. At least one worker was injured and taken to the hospital, Lewis said. The condition of the worker is not known.
The company does not know what caused the explosion, but fire sparked by the blast was quickly put under control.
Residents say they felt the blast at about 8 a.m. Monday morning.
"It was extremely scary. You shook you were so scared," said Laura McEwen, the wife of Mayor Russ McEwen, who lives about two miles from the refinery. "Our walls shook. It jolted your bed. It was like an earthquake."
John Moseley, managing editor of the Big Spring Herald, whose downtown office is also about two miles from the refinery, heard the blast and said, "I thought it would knock the walls down."
Photos sent by a witness to CBS11TV.COM show flames and a huge plume of smoke coming from the facility. Claudene Cooper, who took the photos, said she was eight miles away from the plant at the time.
The blast shut down Interstate 20 near the refinery, led to the evacuation of two nearby elementary schools and eventually canceled classes at all nine schools in Big Spring.
Big Spring School District Assistant Superintendent Carie Dunnam was in an administration building four miles away from the refinery at the time of the explosion. She said that the force of the blast blew open the doors. "Literally, pieces of my ceiling came on top of my head," she said.
