Cushing Terminal tank fire drill involves three partners

Source: Tulsa World, Okla.mini storageAug. 28--CUSHING -- It begins slowly, with just a modest fountain of water arcing over the heads of nearby workers.Within moments, that fountain becomes a continuous blast as a massive stream nearly 80 feet wide pours onto a 50-foot-tall oil storage tank more than 200 feet away.Tuesday's exercise wasn't just an excuse for an impressive hydrotechnic display. The Cushing Fire Department and personnel from Enbridge Energy Co. and Gavilon Pipeline and Storage were conducting a practice drill to ensure they'll be able to contain a tank fire as quickly as possible.Cushing Fire Chief Chris Pixler said the exercise had the largest scale of any practice routine they've run at any of the oil storage facilities that dot the area's landscape."Our plan going forward is to do this annually," he said.Enbridge was able to host the event because it had an empty tank at the Cushing Terminal that was already scheduled for demolition, said Lara Burhenn, a spokeswoman for the Canadian company.Gavilon provided manpower and equipment because it is a neighbor of Enbridge and because the various energy companies at the Cushing Terminal share safety concerns, said Todd Tanoy, senior director for midstream operations at Omaha, Neb.-based Gavilon."Cushing is a tight-knight community," he said. "If there's ever an actual emergency, we can all pull together."Energy companies at the Cushing Terminal store equipment for the Cushing Fself storagere Department to help speed response time.In Tuesday's exercise, four pumps were set up near one of the ponds that are maintained at the terminal specifically to help with firefighting, Pixler said.Those pumps pushed water to two distributing devices called monitors that are each capable of pumping out 6,000 gallons of water per minute, he said. Each of the monitors can have up to four water jets, although Tuesday they just had one apiece.The participants switched between shooting jets of water and fire-suppressant foam. The foam is tinted red to help firefighters gauge the amount that's mixed in with water, Tanoy said.Burhenn said the exercise helps everyone involved gauge details such as the amount of hose necessary and the amount of force needed to pump water and foam onto, and sometimes into, the tanks."Some of the tanks have floating lids that raise and lower with the volume of oil," she said. "Sometimes you'll just have a fire on the rim."Pixler said the exercise greatly benefitted the fire department."It was very successful," he said. "We learned a lot from it, and while our personnel are trained on these skills, we don't get to practice them a lot."The last recorded fire at the terminal was sparked by lightning in 2004.Robert Evatt 918-581-8447robert.evatt@tulsaworld.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) Visit Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) at .tulsaworld.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉