Oil fire costs millions

Press, 20 April 1981, Page 6

Oil fire costs millions

Shell Oil engineers at Singapore's Bukom Island oil refinery, one of the largest in J the world, were yesterday counting the cost of a'l6-hour fire on Saturday,* on<? of the longest and most dangerous fire battles in local'history. Although no figures were yet available a shell spokesman said damage would run to “millions of dollars.” Engineers are also faced with the huge task of treating several thousand tons of fuel which were mixed with water and foam during the fight to put the fire out. A Shell official, Colin Stewards, said that 15,000 tons of light gasoline pumped out of a tank which caught, fire was mixed with foam and water. Many more thousands of tons pumped out of adjacent tanks could also have , been mixed with the water which was sprayed on the Outside of the tanks to | stop overheating. The fire is believed to have started when lightning hit the top of a tank during a thunderstorm. The heat triggered an automatic foam J sprinkler system on top of the tank and tripped the alarm system. About 100 firemen fought the blaze and struggled to stop, it spreading to the more than 100 tanks.