Seven Injured in Corpus Christi Tank Fire

Seven contract workers were injured in a fire on Saturday at the Magellan Midstream Partners petroleum storage tank farm in Corpus Christi, Texas, according to company and city officials.

The fire broke out at about 10 a.m. CST (1600 GMT) on Saturday, said Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine.

“The tank was being cleaned by contractors at the time of the incident,” Heine said. “The fire has been extinguished at this time.”

During a televised news conference on Saturday afternoon, Corpus Christi Deputy Fire Chief Richie Quintero said seven workers were injured in the fire. Four of the injured were in critical condition and one person was taken for treatment to a burn center in San Antonio, Texas.

Also at the news conference, Mark Calhoun, Magellan’s local operations manager, said the seven contract workers were cleaning the large above ground storage tank, which is done periodically prior to inspection.

“This fire started near a tank that was being cleaned and inspected,” Calhoun said. “This is an above-ground storage tank that was holding residual light crude oil.”

The Magellan tank farm has 60 storage tanks capable of holding 37 million barrels of petroleum and petroleum products and is located near Valero Energy Corp’s and Citgo Petroleum Corp’s refineries in Corpus Christi. Both companies told KRIS-TV the fire was not at their refineries.

Magellan operates pipelines, storage farms and terminals for petroleum products.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft)