A few things have been cleared up since the explosion.
Here's the lowdown.
Crews were working on shutting the refinery down for repairs to be made in May. It was during this process that the first explosion hit. This happened in the "Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit". No idea what that is. 😒
Fire crews put that first fire out, but everything was still so hot several more explosions occured in the afternoon, making an even larger fire.
Liquid Asphalt poured all over the ground unchecked, coming through a hole in a storage unit. The refinery manager claimed that most of the fire and smoke came from the asphalt burning.
No name was given for the fluid that came from a valve damaged in the explosion. The fluid was described as a heavy material, not quite as heavy as the asphalt, more like a bunker fuel.
It was this fluid that kept the fire going until 3AM the next morning.
The final number of injured people was 16. And rumors from hospital workers about two deaths were lies.
Now here's the really scary thing.
The Husky plant is one of 50 refineries in the country that use Hydrogen Flouride.
This chemical is extremely corrosive and will eat your flesh to the bone very quickly.
They had 15,000 pounds of the stuff in a holding tank capable of holding up to 78,000 pounds of it.
And this tank was only 200 feet away from the fire.
You guys experts stated in 2011 that it could travel up to 25 miles through the air. We are talking everyone in Duluth (my town) and Superior dead or severely injured.
We were 200 feet away from up to 180,000 dead people.
I can't get over how close we came.
The Mayor of Superior listened to concerns from citizens over the Hydrogen Flouride and he has since asked Husky to remove it from the city. The request was quickly suported by the Mayor of Duluth.
Husky claims that no chemicals reached the Harbor, and claims are made that air and water quality is safe, but the University of Minnesota, Duluth will be doing their own quality tests to keep the company honest.
And, the company has not said if the ground water was contaminated, only the harbor.
We haven't heard the end of this.
Experts say that there was most certainly toxic carcinogens in the black smoke covering the entire city, and some lawyer groups are already putting together a lawsuit.
I can only hope this disaster can be used as a catalyst for change.
