update #2 on Wash. state oil refinery explosion

[ensho]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng


Four workers were injured and three were missing after a midnight explosion and fire at an oil refinery in Washington state early Friday morning, officials said. The Skagit County and Anacortes fire departments sent crews to battle the fire that erupted at 12:40 a.m. PT Friday, while Airlift Northwest told King-TV that four helicopters were dispatched. Two of the injured workers werer transported from local hospitals to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center by around 3:30 a.m. PT, someone involved in the rescue operation told msnbc.com on the condition of anonymity. The remaining two were on their way to the hospital, one of the country's leading burn trauma centers. Activity around the complex had calmed down considerably by about 3 a.m. PT, The Associated Press reported. Witnesses in houses as far away as 5 miles said they felt their houses shake, then saw flames and black smoke. "My house shook, big time," Lisa Wooding told KOMOnews. "There were flames. First high, then low to the ground and broad." Some said the fire was being blown by high winds.

Jason Chinchen told NBC station KING 5 that he lives three to four miles away from the refinery and felt his windows shake. Chinchen said immediately after, there was a noise that sounded like a jet flying overhead, a kind of loud wind, the news service reported. He took some pictures and video of the refinery in the distance. The pictures show what appears to be the glow of flames at the facility. The blaze started in a naptha unit of the complex and it was put out by the refinery's emergency crews, Tesoro Refinery human resources manager John McDarment sadi. He said that he didn't know how it had started. Tesoro Corporation, a Fortune 100 company that operates seven refineries including the one in Anacortes, has a combined capacity of 665,000 barrels per day, according to the firm's Web site.
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wishing everyone well and hoping the toxins are not spread far and wide