Overview
- A massive fire and explosions at the Explorer Pipeline storage site near Highway 75 and West 126th Street burned for about 12 hours before firefighters declared the blaze out Monday evening.
- Emergency responders ordered evacuations for residents east of Highway 75 and Glenpool Public Schools placed campuses on shelter-in-place while first crews secured the area.
- Firefighters and specialist contractors used repeated foam applications and cooling operations to extinguish flames and to prevent vapor release, with crews applying foam at intervals during the transition to a cool-down phase.
- No injuries were reported and Explorer Pipeline has implemented a cleanup and waste-disposal plan while working with the EPA on ongoing air-quality monitoring around the facility fence line.
- Officials say lightning is the suspected ignition source but the cause remains under formal investigation and the incident recalls two earlier major tank fires at the same Glenpool facility in 2003 and 2006.