Explosion Rocks Louisiana Refinery; 1 Dead, 19 Hurt

A pre-dawn explosion rocked a Shell Oil Co. refinery today, killing one employee and injuring 19 others, authorities said. Five people were reported missing in the blast that damaged nearby homes and shattered windows 20 miles away in uptown New Orleans.

The 3:34 a.m. explosion touched off a series of spectacular fires within the plant and caused heavy damage to surrounding homes, schools and businesses.

The fires created a rosy-orange glow visible for more than 40 miles in the clear early-morning sky, and a thick plume of black smoke trailed southeast toward the horizon.

The blast and fire did not release any toxic fumes, said a spokesman at the St. Charles Parish (County) Emergency Operations Center, but an evacuation order was issued for most of the Mississippi River community’s 4,500 residents.

The explosion occurred in a catalytic cracker, a tower in which oil is heated to high temperatures in the process of refining it to gasoline.

“It blew us out of bed,” said Betty Miller, 33, who waited at an evacuation center with her three children at Destrehan High School. “It blew the windows out.”

The Norco business district resembled a bombed-out war zone. Windows and doors were blown out and walls collapsed. Glass shards littered streets and parking lots.

Later in the morning, the plant superintendent, Paul Schwinn, said the fire had stabilized. The flow of hydrocarbons that could keep the fire fueled was cut off and the blaze was burning itself out, he said.