Fire put out for second time this month at Calcasieu Refining

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - A fire has broken out at the Calcasieu Refining Company on W Tank Farm Rd.

Crews were working to dismantle the old tank that caught fire two weeks ago when things went wrong.

“They had been doing some further repairs, there was some liquid apparently left in the tank,” OHSEP director Dick Gremillion said. “State police were here monitoring the progress and they had a small flash fire [that] I’m not going to say small because it put out a lot of smoke.”

Precautions were taken to ensure the safety of those who are close to the refinery, and no injuries were reported.

“At about 1:50 p.m. we put a precautionary shelter-in-place in the area for a one-mile radius,” Gremillion said. “The fire was pretty quickly contained and we lifted the shelter in place at 2:20 this afternoon.”

Controller of Calcasieu Refinery, Adam Judice said the refinery began dismantling the tank yesterday and the chances of a fire igniting again is always a possibility.

“There is a probability that the fire could happen again in the next few days,” Judice said. “We do have fire fighting teams on site with foam trucks to put the fire out as they were today. That’s why it was put out in 28 minutes today, they’ll remain on site until the tank is demobilized.”

Unlike the fire at the beginning of the month, this one did not call for evacuations.

Gremillion said people can get notified of the shelter-in-place by signing up for Calcashout’s emergency alarm system.

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