Shamrock Oil and Gas Corp. Fire, Sun Ray, TX (1956)

Shamrock Oil and Gas Corp. Fire, Sun Ray, TX (1956)

On July 29, 1956, 19 firefighters were killed while battling a fire at the Shamrock Oil Refinery in northern Texas. This incident caused the fourth largest loss of firefighter lives in U.S. history. We remember those killed 54 year ago tomorrow: Allen W. Cleveland, Billy Joe Dunn, Sam A. Gibson, Jr., Albert O. Milligan, Paschal Pool, Meryl W. Slagle, Donald W. Thompson, Ray Biles, Lewis A. Broxson, Gilford R. Corse, Claude Emmett, Alvin Freeman, D.C. Lilley, James L. Rivers, Virgil W. Thomas, Gayle Weird, Rupert Weir, Charles Lummus and Joe West. All were firefighters who worked for either the Sunray or Dumas volunteer fire departments or the Shamrock Industrial Fire Brigade. Flammable hexane and pentane vapors began escaping from the spheroid designated as No. 199 at the Shamrock Oil and Gas Refinery. A relief valve released, turning pentane loose to the ground. The wind was blowing toward the process area, specifically an asphalt tank about 350 feet away under which a small fire was kept. This photo shows tank 199 before the BLEVE. At 6:53 a.m., the 12,000-barrel, pumpkin-shaped spheroid tank containing about 500,000 gallons of pentane and hexane gases exploded, sending a mushrooming fireball into the air and burning fuel to rain down for more than a mile. On the morning of July 29, 1956, flammable hexane and pentane vapors began escaping from the spheroid designated as No. 199 at the Shamrock Oil and Gas Refinery, a petroleum tank farm located between the small towns of Sunray and Dumas, Texas. According to an article in Industrial Fire World, a relief valve released, turning pentane loose to the ground. The wind was blowing toward the process area, specifically an asphalt tank about 350 feet away under which a small fire was kept. At about 5:45 a.m., vapors ignited, then flashed back to No. 199. According to the NFPA, for the next hour, firefighters and plant workers were occupied with both a ground fire involving a liquid spill from a possible line leak in the vicinity of the tank’s pump inside the dike, and a fire at the gauging device and vents. Eventually, flames from the dike fire rose 40 feet high, enveloping the spheroid. At 6:53 a.m., the 12,000-barrel, pumpkin-shaped spheroid tank containing about 500,000 gallons of pentane and hexane gases exploded, sending a mushrooming fireball into the air and burning fuel to rain down for more than a mile. The fireball ignited a 20,000-barrel diesel oil tank that contained 6,500 gallons, as well as two tanks of crude oil; one contained 6,000 to 8,000 barrels and the other contained 2,000 barrels. These tanks were 450 to 550 feet from spheroid No. 199. An 80,000-barrel with a floating roof containing gasoline located about 225 feet away had two seal fires that were extinguished. A sixth tank smoldered but was also extinguished. According to GenDisasters, 15 firefighters burned to death almost instantly when the hot wall of fire shot across the ground. The other four died later of complications from their burns. Forty others, exposed to the explosion from a great distance, were severely burned. The fire burned for days.