Delaware refinery equipment failure injures three
(Reuters) - According to a report earlier in the week, an "explosion" caused by an equipment failure at PBF Energy’s Delaware City, Delaware refinery injured three people, requiring hospitalization, a report by Delaware Online said.
PBF runs a 182,200-bpd refinery in Delaware City.
During equipment maintenance, three men were burned, the report said, quoting a state fire marshal.
The report also said there was no fire and no major damage to equipment at the facility.
However, updated reports on Wednesday indicated that something happened on Tuesday at the Delaware City Refinery that sent three contractors to a special burn unit at Crozer Medical Center, yet neither the facility's owner, PBF Energy, nor the state is releasing many details.
On Wednesday, Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Robert Fox retracted his initial statement that had described the event as an explosion.
In an emailed statement, Fox said, "Further investigation revealed that what was originally described as an explosion was actually a release of heated product under pressure."
"The plant suffered no damage and no down time of equipment," he said.
Fox did not respond to questions about where initial information about an explosion came from, what kind of "heated product" caused the burns, or how it was released.
Four hours before the retraction, PBF Energy President Matt Lucey defiantly called news reports of the event at his company's facility "extraordinary misreporting."
Lucey made the comments during an earnings call after an investment analyst asked about news reports of the incident. The injuries to the three contractors, which left one in critical condition, happened during "routine maintenance," Lucey said.
"There was no explosion at Delaware City," he said. "There's no disruption to our plant or operations."
Following the call, a PBF spokeswoman said the company would not comment about where the fire marshal might have received information that informed initial statements about an "explosion."
A spokesman for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, which regulates the refinery, did not respond to a request for details about the incident.
What is known is that first responders on Tuesday initially took the three burn victims to Christiana Hospital. They were later transferred to the burn unit at Crozer Medical Center, near Chester.
Lucey told investors that the contractors were receiving the "highest care."
An official for the contracting company, Nooter Construction, was not available to speak on Wednesday. According to its website, Nooter has contracts with refineries, power plants, chemical plants, and oil terminals, among other industrial facilities.
The last reported explosion at the Delaware City Refinery was in 2015, when a 62-year-old man was burned on his face and neck in a flash fire. The fire's cause was a lack of protocol, according to a state report.
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