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Marathon Detroit refinery fire began during tank fueling: filing

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HOUSTON | Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:26pm EDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum Corp's reported a Saturday night fire broke out in a sour water tank at its 106,000 barrel per day (bpd) Detroit refinery, while the tank was being fueled, according to a notice filed with the U.S. National Response Center.

Marathon declined to discuss operations at the refinery on Sunday. On Saturday, Marathon said there were no injuries due to the blaze and the refinery continued to operate normally.

The cause of the fire is unknown, according to the notice, which became available to the public on Sunday.

Sour water is wastewater from the refining process. Pollutants have to be stripped out of it before the water can be reused or sent to an outside wastewater system.

Marathon reported the sour water tank involved in the fire contained ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide.

The fire was extinguished about two hours after it broke out.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)

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Comments (2)
50cal wrote:
so what

Apr 28, 2013 7:04pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
Katmandu wrote:
I drove by the refinery at 1:00 Saturday and there was a heavy gasoline smell and an acrid burning odor…I have driven by multiple dozens of times without noting those smells. Makes me wonder if the fire started 5 hours later, or was already in the beginning stages at 1:00 PM.

Apr 28, 2013 9:20pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
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