Tank Fire Causes Injuries

Doctors tonight are treating two men who were burned when fire erupted in a crude oil storage tank. One had burns serious enough to prompt emergency workers to call for a medical helicopter to fly him to a hospital that specializes in treating burn victims.

The other was taken by ambulance to a hospital with burns to his face and arms.

The Hardin County Sheriff's Office says it happened at about nine this morning off Pan Am Road, two miles north of Kountze.

The Kountze Fire Chief says a man at the site of the storage tank made an emergency call, not to ask for help in fighting the fire, but to request a medical helicopter for the victim who received serious burns to his face.

When firefighters arrived at Kountze Middle School to wait for the medical helicopter, they found out there was a fire at two tanks.

We were not able to get any video storage tanks because they're on private property.

The chief of the Kountze Volunteer Fire Department says when they arrived at the property owned by Union Gas, the workers had already put out the flames.

To cool off the tanks of light crude oil, firefighters sprayed them with about 600 gallons of a water and foam mixture.

There were about five workers and the pumper, who watches the site, there when the fire started.

The chief says two workers were burned while they were taking apart and cleaning the tanks.

"When it flashed over the door was cracked about 2 to 3 inches and that's where it flashed out of it and up the side of the tank. It went back just as soon as it burnt the fumes off. It went back into the tank," says Kountze Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jeff LaComb.

The workers are not employed by Union Gas, they work for Streamline Production Systems in Kountze.

Authorities are investigating to find out what ignited the vapors.