Carson Refinery Blasts Kill Two and Injure 45

Two people were killed and 45 injured Thursday when a chain of explosions from a gasoline-processing pump tore through an Atlantic Richfield refinery in Carson, sending 5,000-degree hydrogen flames shooting hundreds of feet into the air.

The greater-alarm fire knocked out of operation a $20-million catalytic processing unit that produces gasoline. The blaze brought 110 fire fighters, 23 engine companies, two hazardous materials teams and three paramedic helicopters rushing to the county’s second largest refinery. Fire officials called it the most devastating refinery fire in 20 years, in an area that is dotted with such facilities.

First Aid in Vacant Lot

Of the injured, eight were reported seriously hurt--at least six in critical condition. Dozens of the less severely injured received first aid in a vacant lot converted into an instant field hospital while helicopters swooped down to pick up the seriously injured and fly them to South Bay hospitals. The two dead men were not immediately identified.

Arco maintenance worker Lafayette Love, 36, said the explosion “felt like ‘Nam. I just looked to see where it was going and I went the opposite direction.”

The blaze, reported at 9:48 a.m., was extinguished within an hour--with the help of Fire Department brass who were 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, the department’s top expert in hazardous materials, who was at the ceremony. The firefighters 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 near a pump to a heating unit in the reformer exploded for reasons that are not yet known, fire officials said.

The bodies of the two dead workers lay nearby. Above the blazing pump was a rack of gasoline pipes.

“Pipes were exploding and sagging and feeding the fire,” Maleta said. The firefighters switched off the flow of gas through the pipes and controlled the flames shortly afterward. Maleta and others called it the worst refinery fire, in terms of total injuries, in Los Angeles County in more than 20 years.

David Wyatt, 38, of El Toro was working 50 feet away from the reformer unit when it blew. His first sensation was “just heat, man. You get a lot of heat down your neck fast, and you go (run) the other way.”

Escaped Unharmed

Wyatt, who escaped without a scratch, was not thinking of his own good fortune as medics checked him over.

“I’m not too lucky. My buddy got burned,” he said. His friend, Stanley Lawrence, 29, of Westminster suffered third-degree burns and was listed in critical condition at Memorial Hospital Medical Center in Long Beach.

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

Hutto was near the refinery fence and he did not wait to use the gate. He was halfway over the fence when another explosion went off.

“I heard a big noise,” he said. “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 injuries received in his fall.

Knocked From Seat

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

Wilmington Avenue was blocked off to traffic until 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.”

Arco officials, who employ 1,100 workers at the refinery, said they are analyzing records of temperatures and pressures of the damaged unit in an attempt to determine the cause of the explosions.

Similar Unit Shut Down

In the unit that exploded, distillates of crude oil are heated under pressure and then catalyzed in the presence of platinum, producing higher-octane gasoline. Arco officials shut down a similar unit Thursday as a temporary precaution.

Arco has a good safety record, Maleta said. The Fire Department conducts annual safety inspections and makes sure that firefighters closest to the refinery take tours so they know the layout, he explained.

“We’re here for a reason,” he said of Fire Station 127.

Before a welder can light a torch at the Arco refinery, he needs a permit. Company inspectors, using special equipment, must certify that the area is free of flammable vapors and fluids.

Safety Essential

The plant processes 210,000 barrels of oil of day--enough to turn the 750-acre plant and much of surrounding Carson into an inferno--and that sort of safety precaution is essential, Maleta said.

Jim Richey, Arco manager of refinery technology, said, “We do everything we think is needed.”

That includes monthly safety inspections and a lot more. The refineries of today operate with more automation and higher pressures and temperatures than earlier plants. The containment vessels are thicker and stronger to withstand the higher temperatures and pressures.

The training that refinery employees undergo is tougher too. One way of using employee expertise more efficiently was evident Thursday. While Arco firefighters worked alongside fire units from the county and several cities, employees from the nearby Shell Oil refinery manned a communications post on the sidelines that they had set up in a station wagon.

Sensing Equipment

Like most refineries, Maleta said, the plant does not yet have automatic sensing equipment for vibration or vapors--tell-tale signs that could indicate something is amiss.

“This is coming down the road,” he said.

Hospital officials said the following were injured in Thursday’s explosion and fire:

At Torrance Memorial Hospital’s burn center were Vernon Wales, 50, of Wilmington and Jim Broadway, 33, of Long Beach. Both were in critical condition.

At the burn center of County-USC Medical Center, Carl New, 47, and Eugene Martinez, 37, were in critical condition.

At Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Basil Perzze, 29, was in fair condition with leg and back injuries.

Critical Condition

At Memorial in Long Beach, Stanley Lawrence, 29, of Westminster was in critical condition with third-degree burns. Also in critical condition was Barney Dye, 57. In fair condition were Waymond Williams, 29, of Long Beach; John Beach, 35, of Long Beach; Earl Harris, 40, of Los Angeles, and Tana Sharp, 21, of La Habra.

In good condition at the same hospital were Wayne Gilmore, 27, of Los Angeles; Lowell Dotson, 27, of Houston; Kevin Murdock, 22, of Houston, and Timothy Jones, 24, of Long Beach.

At San Pedro Peninsula Hospital were Phillip Smith, 28, of Los Angeles; John Hildebrandt, 42, of Mira Loma, Calif., and Daniel Mc Carthy, 32, of San Pedro, all in fair condition. Albert Brandelli Jr., 44, of San Pedro, captain of Squad 6 of Los Angeles Fire Department, also was in fair condition.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles medical examiner’s office said there were two deaths and that unconfirmed reports from the scene of other fatalities turned out to be in error.

In December, 1979, two workers and a passing motorist were killed when gasoline vapor leaking from a tank at Mobil’s Torrance refinery exploded, shooting flames 500 feet into the air. Last month, a truck driver was killed at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo when liquid petroleum being loaded into his tanker truck ignited and exploded.

Staff writers Edward J. Boyer and Patt Morrison contributed to this article.