Blast rips through Philadelphia refinery, triggering major fire

PHILADELPHIA -- An explosion in a butane tank ripped through a refinery in South Philadelphia early Friday, lighting up the night sky and triggering a massive fire.

There were no injuries and it appears firefighters have contained the blaze. Officials lifted a shelter in place request for residents in the immediate area and reopened the Platt Bridge, which was closed after the explosion.

The city Office of Emergency Management said the refinery's operators reported "no detectable inhalants."

Officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection could not immediately be reached for comment.

Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy said the blast was reported about 4 a.m, and arriving firefighters found Philadelphia Energy Solutions refining complex firefighters battling the blaze.

The fire quickly escalated to a third alarm and while it has been contained it was not under control as of 7 a.m.

Murphy said the explosion was in a "vat" of butane "like you fill your lighter with." Its cause is not yet known.

Residents on social media and in media interviews reported subsequent explosions after the initial blast.

Murphy said the Fire Department was supporting the refinery team's operations, keeping the fire contained to the vat and cooling surrounding pipes and equipment with water.

Cherice Corley, a PES spokesperson, earlier said an "emergency response plan" was activated at the refining complex after the explosion and responders from the company as well as the Philadelphia Fire Department were on the scene.

PES said all employees at the plant when the blast occurred have been accounted for.

Murphy said 120 Philadelphia firefighters and 51 pieces of equipment were involved in the operation.

Mayor Jim Kenney plans to meet with city and PES officials this morning to get an update on the incident, said Deana Gamble, a city spokesperson.

Winds from the southwest at about 5 mph are blowing any smoke in the direction of the Walt Whitman Bridge, towards Camden and Gloucester City.

SEPTA's bus routes G, 17, 37, 68 are detoured due to the fire, said SEPTA spokesperson Heather Redfern. Roads near the airport were experiencing closures early Friday.

David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, a nonprofit environmental group, lives about a mile from the refinery.

I was woken up by three loud boom, boom, booms. I thought an electric transformer in the neighborhood had exploded," he said. "It was jarring. I have two young kids in the house."

Masur said he was concerned about any pollutants or toxins and their impacts on nearby neighborhoods.

"If I live about a mile away and could hear it in the dead of night, you can imagine what it's like if you lived next door and the impact on local families," he said. "And certainly you have to think about the first responders. They have to show up and do their job. They don't know what to expect or what they'll be exposed to."

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), the largest and oldest refinery on the U.S. East Coast, emerged from bankruptcy last year but has continued to struggle under a heavy debt. Its management team has been reshuffled in recent months.

A University of Pennsylvania report in September warned that the troubled South Philadelphia refinery complex may be shut down in the next few years and that the city should prepare to deal with a 1,300-acre industrial property fouled by more than a century of fuel production.

The PES complex is actually two refineries -- the Atlantic Refining Co. opened in 1870 at Point Breeze and Gulf Oil Corp. opened an adjacent facility at Girard Point in 1926. Sunoco acquired the plants in 1988 and 1994.

Sunoco formed a joint venture in 2012 with private-equity firm, the Carlyle Group. The joint venture declared bankruptcy in January 2018, and completed the $635 million financial restructuring on Aug. 7.

The two largest creditors, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Halcyon Capital Management, now hold about 70 percent of the shares in the new company. Carlyle and Energy Transfer Partners LP, Sunoco's parent, have a combined 25 percent minority share.

Staff writers Claudia Vargas and Frank Kummer contributed to this story.