5 Feared Dead, 45 Injured in Carson Oil Refinery Fire : Mushroom Cloud Forms After Blast

Two people were killed, three were missing and presumed dead and 45 were variously injured this morning when a chain of explosions from a gasoline-processing pump tore through an Atlantic Richfield refinery in Carson.

The three-alarm blaze brought 23 fire companies, 2 hazardous materials teams and 3 paramedic helicopters to the scene, where witnesses said the series of blasts volleyed a fist of flame and a “mushroom cloud” of smoke as high as 500 feet into the air. Fire officials were calling it one of the most devastating refinery fires in memory, in an area that is dotted with such facilities.

Fire Department spokesman Capt. Gordon Pearson said the three missing workers are presumed dead. Of the injured, 12 were reported seriously hurt--at least two in critical condition. Ambulances and the three helicopter teams ferried them to several South Bay hospitals, including the burn unit at Torrance Memorial.

Arco maintenance worker Lafayette Love, 36, said the explosion in the $20-million hydrogen-cracking unit “felt like Nam. I just looked to see where it was going and I went the opposite direction.”

Brass at Nearby Ceremony

The blaze was extinguished within an hour after the explosion was reported--ironically, by Fire Department brass attending a dedication ceremony at Fire Station No. 127, across the street from the Arco plant. The station was being renamed for the late Robert A. Cinader, who produced the television shows “Emergency” and “Adam 12.”

“We didn’t receive any official alarm,” said Fire Capt. John Maleta, who was at the ceremony. They heard the explosion and ran to the refinery gate. “The employees were standing along Wilmington Avenue--the whole two blocks. We found five burn victims and began treating them, then we heard a second explosion.”

Maleta and other fire officials ran into the No. 1 Reformer Unit--one of three systems at the refinery that take low-octane gasoline and increase the octane levels, an Arco spokesman explained. The fire began when an eight-inch hydrogen and naphtha line in the reformer unit exploded, fire officials believe.

“Pipes were exploding and sagging and feeding the fire,” Maleta said. They switched off the flow of gas over a burning pump and found the two dead workers--one within 15 feet of the explosion point, another about 30 feet away.

David Wyatt, 38, of El Toro was working 50 feet away from the reformer unit when it blew, and escaped without a scratch. His first sensation was “just heat, man. You get a lot of heat down your neck fast, and you go (run) the other way.” A friend, Stanley Lawrence, suffered minor burns.

‘Then Another and Another’

Warren Hutto, 37, a veteran contract refinery worker from Houston, said the blast was the worst he ever saw. “There was one blast and then there was another and then another and another.”

Hutto was near the refinery fence and as he climbed it, “I heard a big noise. I saw a big cloud. It blew me into the middle of the street.” He showed his hands as he spoke; they were bandaged from his fall.

Another witness said he saw a crane operator blown out of his seat by the force of the blast.

Wilmington Avenue was still blocked off to traffic at midday. At the Antique Guild warehouse nearby, inventory worker Vicki Ocaranza, 26, said, “We thought it was an earthquake or another landing of the space shuttle.”

After the first “mushroom cloud” explosion, she said, there were “a lot of little explosions--it’d go bang, and we’d go running out and look up.” The shaking “lasted a long time and shook all the windows and the floor.”