Eight workers sent to hospital in Regina refinery explosion

Shaken by an explosion that some described as a massive fireball, workers huddled Thursday in groups in the fields surrounding the Consumers' Co-operative Refineries Ltd. in north Regina.

Ten construction workers were injured in the explosion. Eight were taken to hospital to be treated for burns, two were treated at the site. The explosion and fire broke out shortly after 2 p.m., said Gilbert Le Dressay, the refinery's manager of safety, environment and training and the incident commander.

"The situation is under control and there is no immediate danger to the people on site and/or the community, but unfortunately when the incident happened, we did have 10 injuries that we've accounted for right now," he told reporters.

At mid-afternoon, he didn't know the severity of the injuries. A foreman for Chemco electrical contractors, who declined to give his name, described the massive explosion.

"The explosion went up about 250 feet in the air - it was a huge fireball," he said. "I was about 300 feet away . . . I'm composing myself now. You can still see the marks on the red crane where the fireball hit."

He said Chemco had 250 employees on site.

"I notified everybody by radio that there was a big explosion on the unit and everybody got out," he said. "Your biggest fear is that you get everybody out safely."

Between 400 and 450 refinery employees and close to 1,000 contractors were working in the area.

Large clouds of black smoke poured from the refinery and spread for kilometres until the fire was under control by 2: 50 p.m.

A leak in a unit that produces diesel caused the release of diesel fuel and hydrogen gas, which ignited.

Cameron Keller, an insulator with Fulleraustin, a subcontractor for CCRL, was working a couple of units away from the site of the explosion when he heard popping sounds.

"It sounded like a cap popping off a beer bottle and then all of a sudden there was tons of black smoke and big waves of fire going straight up," said Keller, dressed in blue coveralls with fluorescent yellow tape and a hardhat while sitting in a field across from the refinery.

"The alarms went off and we all ran out. We were two plants away and we didn't feel the heat, but we had some guys in Unit 11 and they felt the heat right above them."

The explosion occurred in an older area of the refinery, which is being revamped.

"This is an area where we're replacing equipment, but this equipment is still monitored and repaired as normal - it's inspected and maintained, so we don't know the cause of the leak," Le Dressay said.

The unit will be closed until the cause is determined.

Vic Huard, vice-president of corporate affairs at Federated Co-operatives Ltd., said there was no danger to the public and no residential areas had to be evacuated.

"At ground level, there is no toxic cloud involved; there's no toxin danger to the public downwind - we can state that without fear of contradiction," Huard said.