Fire out at Silver Eagle Utah refinery

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A fire at the 10,250 barrel-per-day Silver Eagle refinery near Salt Lake City, Utah, was extinguished late Wednesday morning, according to a fire department official.

A 9:10 a.m. MST (1610 GMT) explosion at the refinery in Woods Cross, Utah, knocked three nearby houses off their foundations, said Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Bassett of the South Davis Metro Fire Department.

A company representative was not immediately available to discuss refinery operations.

No injuries were reported from blast and ensuing fire. The explosion caused a brief power outage that affected three nearby refineries.

"We were very lucky, very fortunate there were no injuries," Bassett said.

A preliminary investigation found the explosion occurred after a liquid containing a mix of diesel and hydrogen, which was released from a pipe on a unit, flowed across the ground to a furnace where the liquid ignited, he said.

"We don't know yet if it was a failure of the pipe or a leak which let it get on to the ground and then to the furnace," Bassett said.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by John Picinich)