1 Dead, 9 Hurt in Blasts at Refinery

One man was killed Friday and nine others injured in two apparently unrelated explosions that rocked the Mobil Oil Corp.’s Torrance refinery and sent shock waves as far as Redondo Beach where a city official said the reverberations sounded like “sonic booms.”

The second blast, which caused the one fatality, shattered a plate glass window in the Country Touch Cafe across the street from the main refinery entrance. Randy Henderson, manager of nearby Atlas Transmissions, said debris was thrown 150 feet into the air.

Torrance Fire Department officials identified the dead man as Winston Alexander Jones, 30.

The first incident involved an explosion and flash fire in a sewer that were apparently sparked by a welding torch about 9:50 a.m. It injured seven workers, two of them were seriously burned.

That blaze broke out near a waste-water facility in the tank farm area on the eastern side of the refinery that straddles Crenshaw Boulevard south of West 190th Street, according to Mobil spokesman Jim Carbonetti.

The second blast took place near a sludge treatment tank at 3:09 p.m., killing Jones and burning two other men critically, according to Mobil and Torrance fire officials.

Torrance had 50 firefighters from seven engine companies, two ladder trucks, four rescue units and other units fighting the second blaze.

Joe O’Brian, 53, of Anaheim and John Slaton, 45, of Wilmington were in fair condition at Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center’s burn unit after the morning explosion and fire. Carbonetti said the men work for Instrument Technology International, a construction firm based in Pasadena, Tex.

The three workers whose injuries were not as serious were treated at Little Company of Mary Hospital. They work for Raintree Corp., a construction firm based in Bakersfield. Two others suffered minor injuries that did not require hospitalization.

The second incident involved a volatile liquid from a storage tank which ignited.

When Torrance firefighters arrived at the scene, a pool of the liquid up to 2 feet deep was in flames in a diked area adjacent to a storage tank west of Crenshaw Boulevard, south of 190th Street, according to Capt. Howard Schneider of the Torrance Fire Department.

The location is about two city blocks from the scene of this earlier fire.

Firefighters laid down a layer of foam over the liquid and also poured water on the tank’s walls.

Schneider said that Jones was dead at the scene and two others were critically injured when firefighters arrived.

David Moustafi, 30, was in “very critical” condition Friday night in the burn center at Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center. In stable condition at the same hospital was Jerry Lekberg, 45, who also suffered burns.

Carbonetti said the injured men worked for Cal Cat Chem Co., a Benicia, Calif., company that was cleaning out tanks. The sludge treatment tank where the blast erupted was being used to filter the sludge from tank bottoms. He said the cause of the tank fire, which lasted 10 to 15 minutes, is not known.

‘Decontaminated’

Firefighters and ambulance attendants at the scene were “decontaminated” after being exposed to arsenic, hydrogen peroxide and bromine, according to Battalion Chief Jack R. McCarter of the Torrance Fire Department.

Carbonetti said he had no information on toxic exposure. “If there was anything toxic, everything went up in the fire,” he said.

On Friday night, Mobil officials still had not determined the cause of the second explosion, but Carbonetti said their preliminary investigation showed that the sludge being drained from the bottom of the storage tank was 80% water, 10% a mixture of refined hydrocarbons and crude oil and 10% solids.

Area officials from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were at the refinery investigating the twin explosions, along with a representative from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

City Orders Study

The city of Torrance has hired an outside consultant to conduct an industrial safety audit that will assess the risk posed to the community by refinery operations. The study was ordered by the City Council after a massive explosion rocked the refinery last November, sparking a fire that burned for two days.

That blast was caused by an excess of hydrofluoric acid in a refinery unit that produces unleaded gasoline. In the wake of the November explosion, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has assembled an industry-government task force to consider phasing out use of the acid, which forms a lethal gas if released into the air.

Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this story.