1956 — July 29, fire / explosion, McKee tank farm, Shamrock Oil & Gas, ~Sun Ray, TX–19

— 19 Galveston Daily News, TX. “Texas Oil Explosion Kills 19, Injures 32.” 7-30-1956, p. 1.
— 19 LRC, NETC, FEMA. “McKee Refinery Incident, Sun Ray, TX, July 29th, 1956.
— 19 National Fire Protection Association. 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 139.
— 19 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 996.
— 19 Woodworth. “Texas Refinery Tragedy.” Quarterly, NFPA, Vol. 50, No. 2, Oct 1956, p.77.

Narrative Information

Learning Resource Center, National Emergency Training Center, FEMA: “On the morning of July 29th, 1956 nineteen firefighters died and some 30 bystanders injured when vapors from about 500,000 gallons of a mixture of pentane and hexane escaped suddenly from a ruptured spheroid tank in a huge fireball at the McKee Refinery of Shamrock Oil and Gas Corporation near Sun Ray, TX. A fire alarm had gone out about an hour prior to the rupture of the tank. Flames from burning vapors are believed to have weakened the tank to the point of rupture. The resulting blast caused a heat wave and the ignition of escaping vapors which caused the fatalities and injuries. Locating tank vents on pressure tanks in a manner permitting flames to impinge upon a tank’s vapor space identified as a common but dangerous practice. Fire departments were advised to recognize the need to apply cooling water streams on pressure tanks if the latter are involved in a fire otherwise they should evacuate personnel to a distance of not less than 1000 feet.” (LRC, NETC, FEMA. “McKee Refinery Incident, Sun Ray, TX, July 29th, 1956.)

Woodworth, NFPA: “Nineteen fire fighters died when vapors from about 500,000 gallons of a mixture of pentane and hexane escaped suddenly from a ruptured spheroid tank in a huge ball of fire. The accident occurred at the McKee Refinery of the Shamrock Oil and Gas Corporation about 55 miles north of Amarillo and located between Dumas and Sun Ray, Texas. Rupture of the spheroid fol¬lowed by about an hour the original fire alarm given at 5:45 A.M. on Sun¬day morning, July 29, 1956.

“Flame impingement from burning vapors issuing from a vent on the sphe¬roid weakened the metal on the top plate above the tank vapor space and this was responsible for the violent rupture of the tank. The lives were snuffed out by the heat wave resulting from the bulk release and ignition of the flammable vapors and over 30 other people, many spectators, were burned although some were standing 1,200 feet away when the spheroid failed.

“The Dumas and Sun Ray volunteer fire departments had responded to an early morning call for assistance to fight a fire at the oil refinery located between the two towns. The two departments and the refinery’s own fire squad were fighting a combination ground and vent fire when the tank ruptured violently releasing all of its highly flammable and volatile contents. Of those killed seven were members of the Dumas Fire De¬partment, eight from the Sun Ray Fire Department and four from the plant’s fire squad. With the exception of the Dumas Fire Marshal, the fire depart¬ments were manned with volunteer firemen, several of whom worked for other oil or gas companies in the area, and four worked for the refinery which had the fire. The physical damage property loss is estimated at $500,000.

“The modern small refinery is situated in an isolated location approximately eleven miles from the town of Dumas and seven miles from Sun Ray. The tank farm is separated approximately 500 feet from the refinery process area by railroad tracks and a dip in the ter¬rain. The tank farm property slopes away from the highway that borders one side (south). All tanks are well spaced, individually diked, modern and include such types as: floating roof, cone roof, spheroids and noded spheroids.

“The tanks held a variety of products from crude oil to finished products. The spheroid involved in the original fire was one of two identical tanks designed for 15 pounds-per-square-inch working pressure, built in 1940….

“The fire was seen to originate at an open-fired heater within the diked area of an asphalt tank approximately 350 feet downhill from the spheroid. A very light south-west wind was blow¬ing towards the asphalt tank. The fire apparently flashed back through the vapor cloud to the spheroid. For the next hour the tank was involved in both a ground fire involving a liquid spill from a possible line leak in the vicinity of the tank’s pump and a fire at the gauging device and vents….

“The plant fire brigade was severely limited in manpower since the fire occurred early in the morning when the number of available men for fire-fighting was at the minimum. For this reason assistance from the volunteer fire departments of Dumas and Sun Ray was requested….

“At 6:53 A.M., or slightly over an hour after the original fire was reported, the top of the spheroid ruptured violently. The flame impingement on the exterior tank surface from the burning vapors issuing from the vent discharge points and possibly from the ground fire caused the metal shell of the spheroid to stretch and eventually fail due to the internal pressure in the tank. The metal thinned out near the weld on the top (head-plate) over a distance of about one-third of the circumference of the spheroid at this point….With this sudden failure of the tank top a huge ball of burning vapors was released. Apparently there was a slight warning to the fire fighters since all bodies were found in an area three to four hundred feet from the tank. Many of those injured from burns were spectators standing on the highway over 1,200 feet away. An indication of the intense heat generated by the tank rupture can be judged by the paint which blistered on company houses 3,000 feet away and by the post-fire condition of the leaves on trees as far as a mile away….

“The fires burned out the next day and the refinery was back in operation on the day following the fire. Of the top three management personnel of the refinery, two were hospitalized and one was killed.

Conclusions

“This is another case which condemns the widely accepted practice of locating tank vents on pressure tanks in such a manner as to permit flame impingement on a tank’s vapor space… The installation of a fixed water spray system on all pressure storage tanks would eliminate most of the hazard of a tank rupture by keeping the metal in the tank cool… Fixed water spray systems assure a flow of the important cooling water over the tank shell which cannot be achieved in any other manner.

“Where necessary to fight fires involving any type of pressure tank, the fire-fighters should recognize the possibility of a tank rupture and, therefore, the necessity of applying cooling water streams on the tank. If for any reason it is impossible to apply cooling water streams on the tank shell, fire experiences in this type of rupture would indicate that all personnel should be removed from an area at least 1,000 feet from the tank and even at this distance, all personnel should be protected.

“The location of direct-fired heaters downhill from volatile flammable liquid storage tanks places a source of ignition within the possible path of vapor travel.

“Cast iron should not be permitted in any flammable liquid piping, valves or connections.

“Several refineries feel that it is safer practice to locate pumps outside of a diked area where they would not be subject to fire exposure.

“The installation of adequate fire mains in tank farm areas in refineries has proven its value for necessary fire-fighting operations.

“Finally, all companies and fire departments should review their fire-fighting procedures for fighting pressure storage tank fires. It is hoped that the tragic lessons of this fire will prevent future tragedies of this nature.” (Woodworth, Miles E. “Texas Refinery Tragedy.” Quarterly, National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 50, No. 2, Oct 1956, pp. 77-83.)

Newspaper

July 29, Galveston Daily News: “Dumas, Tex., July 29 (AP) – Four huge petroleum tanks exploded today bathing 19 men in a superhot wall of flame and killing them in their tracks. Thirty-two others were hospitalized with burns. Some of them were horribly seared. The towering orange explosion fireball was sighted in Amarillo, 40 miles away.

“A hundred or more spectators watched, terrified, as lifetime friends and kin stumbled moaning and crying from the smoke and flame on a tank farm of the Shamrock Oil and Gas Corp….A workman protected in a shack 300 yards from the first explosion was scorched. A railroad bridge a quarter of a mile away was burned completely.

“Victims mainly were oil workers and volunteer firemen. Some of the bodies were so hot long after the explosion that they set fire to blankets used to wrap them.

“A boy about 11, wearing no shirt stumbled from the heat with his naked back burning fiercely. Bob Hamilton, Moore County News reporter, was a quarter-mile from the explosion and the heat set his hair blazing.

“Most of the dead were taken to the National Guard Armory, where townspeople attempted to identify bodies that were reduced to charcoal….

“This Texas Panhandle, town of 8,200 was not geared for a disaster this large. But it’s a country town, and everybody helps everybody else, and by 11 a.m. — less than four hours after the 7:15 a.m. disaster, all the 32 burned had been taken care of in the previously quiet and calm 40-bed red brick Moore County Memorial Hospital….

“The explosion and fire was on the tank farm of the 75-million-dollar McKee plant of the Shamrock Oil and Gas Corp. with headquarters in Amarillo, Tex. It adjoins the firm’s McKee refinery, which was not damaged. The plant covers several hundred acres eight miles northeast of Dumas.

“The tank that caused the holocaust was No. 199, a 15,000-barrel mixing arrangement filled with highly explosive pentane used in gasoline refining. The explosion set off a chain of blasts and fires in surrounding tanks, some used for crude oil storage.

“The fire started as a small one in No. 193. There had been some safety valve trouble earlier. It didn’t look too bad – flames were shooting up 50 feet, but that isn’t unusual in this type of fire. Firemen from Dumas and Sun-ray were fighting the blaze and others from surrounding towns had been called to stand by. Then came the explosion and the wall of flame, and more tanks went up….” (Galveston Daily News, TX. “Texas Oil Explosion Kills 19, Injures 32.” 7-30-1956, p. 1.)

Sources

Galveston Daily News, TX. “Texas Oil Explosion Kills 19, Injures 32.” 7-30-1956, p. 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=45126249&sterm=

Learning Resource Center, National Emergency Training Center, Federal Emergency Management Agency. “McKee Refinery Incident, Sun Ray, TX, July 29th, 1956.”

National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996. Accessed 2010 at: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1

National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1983.

Woodworth, Miles E. “Texas Refinery Tragedy.” Quarterly, National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 50, No. 2, Oct 1956, pp. 77-83.