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Fire out at refinery, investigation begins

It is a good thing that Utah is a "right to work state"

And there are no nosey Unions here trying to make business more expensive by trying to keep workers safe.

We all benefit from having no Unions in Utah. Well, everybody but the workers who were hurt, and their families and children.

But that is just an aside. We need to make sure that workers work in the most dangerous conditions possible, have no/little insurance, and have low pay. That keeps everything A-OK.

As a nearby longtime resident, I say this 50-year old refinery should be shut down. It's had several big accidents that have made the news, but countless other small incidents that haven't. They've patched together a failing network of pipes and tanks that are just a major disaster waiting to happen. It's been through a series of owners over the years, each of which has tacked on additional patches and each of which has only wanted to extract what profit they can from it while spending as little as possible on safety and upgrades. They ignore the city managers who try to keep the refinery odors and noises down and they don't care about the residents. The stink, the noise, the safety violations and the accidents are reason enough to shut this place down.

If a semi-truck has an accident anywhere now days mostly we here about the 100 gallons of fuel and the contamination cleanup. What do we have here with thousands of gallons of water and fuel running over the ground for 12 hours. Where does it all run off to? What about ground contamination and seepage into underground water sources? Does all of this end up in the great salt lake? Lets talk about this also media.

Your right, look at the wonderful job the Unions did in Detroit. It's a shame these workers were injured, but to blame it on the lack of Unions? You can't be serious.

We don't even know the cause yet and you are already blaming this on the fact that they don't have a union? Unbelievable.

The fact that four people are injured that shouldn't be is very sad. I'm sure the investigation will reveal what happened. Until then though, let's not jump to conclusions. There is no reason to assume this happened because of lack of unions or that it is even probable that a union would have prevented this in anyway.

here go gas prices again...

If the nut-job environmentalists wouldn't go crazy about saving the Rocky Mountain Golden Caterpillar or whatever insect/animal/fish/whatever is their "beast of choice" at the time, we could build newer and better refineries to avoid this kind of problem.
We haven't built a new refinery in the USA for over 25 years, so all the refineries are in danger of failures like this. The problem is not the right to work issue, or the ownership, its the fact that there are so many regulations from the state, local, and federal goverment, that we can't build a new, state of the art refinery and phase out the older ones.

lets hope gas stations don't see this as a reason to hike up gas prices

Re: Good Thing and Dangerous plant

What caused the fire at the union operated refineries in Houston that last couple of years? And considering it has been over 30 years since a refinery was built in the U.S., I think most refineries in the U.S. are older than 50 years.

When I was a kid, a tank like those got in fire. While the firefighters were trying to set the fire off, it exploded. By miracle, nobody got hurt but a big piece of metal went flying and fell on a house like a knife cutting a bread. The house's owner was just shutting the door and went flying over the front yard. Again, by miracle, he didn't get hurt.

My advice is when you receive an evacuation order, just grab your things and leave. Don't wait until dinner is over or anything. Just leave. Don't take chances. That's why you have your 48 hours emergency packet at hand. Church doesn't give you an advice so members work on that and then leave it in the back of the closet.

if the refinery has been there for 50 years, then it was there when you built/bought your home. you had to know it was there, you can't hide something like that, if you don't like being neighbors to it, you move, it was there first.

So since regulations make building new refineries not only hard but very expensive, the owners decided to "squeeze" until the last drop the existent refineries until they fall into pieces?

Like any other machinery, there should be a life expectancy for those refineries. It would be good to know how long they are supposed to exist. I hope it's not 100 years.

Kind of like the wildlife that lived in the foothills and mountains before houses started going up there, yet people who build there cry and moan about the deer eating there shrubs and such.

I read on KSl that this fire started as a result of a careless worker smoking in a Non-Smoking area! Can anyone confirm?


And since when is it ok to smoke anywhere near an oil refinery? C'mon OSHA, use some stern common sense.....alot more people could have been hurt or killed if this is indeed the case!

I guess we have to thank the "environmentalists" wacos for having to use a 50 year old refinery, which is not only unsafe but antiquated. The question is ,when are they going to change the rules to allow the construction of new efficient refineries?..when hundres of people die?

It is profoundly sad that 4 people were seriously injured in this explosion last night. Apparently, the refinery has significant issues to resolve for the safety of their employees and the community. There are several refineries in this area, though, and they aren't going away. What I am utterly amazed by was the "evacuation". What a joke! We live less than a half mile away. Where were the alarms? How do people get updates about if and when they can come home? What are the risks of coming home? We called the Woods Cross Police Department at 8:30 pm & they said to check the media. Are you kidding me?! No one can come up with anything better than that when there's a tank of 42,000 gallons of fuel on fire - next to other tanks with 42,000 gallons of fuel? Does anyone else see a problem here? It doesn't appear that the refinery or the police department have a sufficient emergency preparedness plan. Time for all Woods Cross citizens to attend the city council meeting and get this changed!

You are so RIGHT ON man! These people are burned and suffering because of Enviro-whackos who have stiffeled oil refinery technologies for years!

Using 50 year old equipment that you cannot update and only repair is ludicrous and only an idiot would vote for it!

Hey liberals....the Oil Refinery is hiring?

I'm an enviromentalist, but hopefully a somewhat realistic one.

I've lived in south Davis county for years and I know the refineries are old. And as such, if there were a slew of maintenance related accidents going on in Utah refineries, I'd be the first to agree with you.

But there haven't been. The last three major incidents in Utah refineries, have all been at the SAME refinery.

This indicates a major problem with the maintenance of this one particular refinery, most likely negligence, on the part of the owners.

But I guess it's easier to put your arms around the shoulders (and your lips to the butt) of big oil and blame the enviros, isn't it, then to think about the facts.

Yea close it down. Move it to China or Mexico where they really take care of their workers and the enviornment. That will do you locals a favor, but it will cause 10 times the harm.

And for the guy worried about the swamp(wetlands)it said the gas did not spill out of the tank so rest well.

One of my best friends was injured in this ACCIDENT and my Nephew works there as well. How dare any of you push your agenda past the fact that people were hurt. Accidents happen, Refineries have fires, part of the work, part of the hazards.

Now, if you are true "CHRISTIANS", instead of pushing your pitiful agendas, you will do all that you can for the families of the injured to help them through this.

How about it.........