Four injured in Tyler, Texas, refinery fire

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Four people were injured in an explosion and fire at Delek US Holdings Inc's 58,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Tyler, Texas, on Thursday afternoon, according to a company spokesman.

Production at the refinery has been shut since the explosion at about 1345 CST (2:45 p.m. EST), sources familiar with refinery operations said Thursday evening.

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

All other employees at the refinery were accounted for, the company said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. Delek employs 271 people in Tyler, according to a company website.

Two of the injured were taken by helicopter to Parkland Hospital, 104 miles west of Tyler, in Dallas, a Parkland spokeswoman said.

The two were to be treated in Parkland's sophisticated burn unit, according to the sources.

The explosion rocked the area around the refinery said an employee at a nearby plant, who asked not to be identified.

"I was in a conference room and we felt the whole room shake," the worker said. "So we walked outside to make sure it wasn't anything at our facility and you could see the smoke plumes."

The fire began in a sat gas unit, which recovers substances like methane, ethane, butane, propane and hydrogen from gases generated in the refining process, according to the company.

One control room was burned by the fire, which may delay the refinery's return to full production, the sources said. Another control room was damaged. A few unit heaters at the refinery were still lit Thursday evening.

The fire, which Tyler firefighters battled for more than three hours, was extinguished by 1800 CST (0000 GMT Friday), the sources said.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba, Bruce Nichols, Anna Driver and Eileen O'Grady; Editing by Christian Wiessner)