CSB Sets May 1 Meeting in Anacortes
The investigative agency will release and vote on its final report on the Tesoro Refinery explosion four years ago.
The federal Chemical Safety Board, having held meetings in Texas last week to announce preliminary findings about the West, Texas, ammonium nitrate explosion, will hold a public meeting May 1 in Anacortes, Wash., to release and vote on its final report on April 2, 2010, explosion and fire at the Tesoro Refinery there. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. PDT at the Brodniak Auditorium at Anacortes High School; the city is located about 70 miles north of Seattle.
The explosion and fire killed seven employees. CSB's investigation found that at the time of the incident, a bank of heat exchangers was being brought online in the naphtha hydrotreater unit when another heat exchanger in a parallel bank catastrophically failed, releasing hydrogen and naphtha, which ignited. The accident was the most deadly U.S. refinery incident since the 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery, which killed 15 workers and injured 180.
Pre-registration to attend the meeting is encouraged but not required; to register for the event, send an email to [email protected].