April 26th 2018 in Superior, Wisconsin a huge explosion took place.

At 5:40am operators took steps to

shut down the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracker or FCC unit for periodic maintenance and inspection. The

FCC Unit uses heat and a solid catalyst to break or crack hydrocarbons from crude oil into smaller

hydrocarbons which can then be blended to gasoline and other products. Slide valves control the flow of

catalyst between the reactor and regenerator which contain flammable hydrocarbons and the

regenerator which contains air. It is important to prevent mixing of the hydrocarbons and air since if

they mix a dangerous explosion can occur. To avoid this hazard the slide valves maintain a catalyst level

between the reactor and regenerator which acts as a barrier. To initiate the shutdown of the FCC Unit

refinery workers stop the flow of hydrocarbons to the unit and close the slide valves connecting the

reactor to the regenerator but unknown to the worker one of those slide valves was eroded and even

though it was closed it couldn’t maintain as a barrier in the reactor. As a result, the catalyst from the

reactor fell through the valve to regenerator leaving no protective barrier between the two pieces of

equipment. This allows air from the regenerator to flow backwards through the slide valve into the

reactor and then to the equipment down the stream of the reactor which contain hydrocarbons forming

a flammable mixture. At approximately 10am, hazardous mixture of air and hydrocarbons found an

ignition source and a large explosion burst out. It hit a large storage puncturing the side of the tank

releasing hot asphalt. Asphalt poured out of the tank over the containment line into the refinery’s

operating unit and spread around the ground. At around 12:15pm the hot asphalt ignited near the

storage tanks and a fire broke out. The fire travelled along a stream of asphalt to the refinery’s crude

and FCC Unit. The fire produced a huge bloom of black smoke leading to evacuation of the portion of the

town of Superior. Typically, this type of asphalt fire can burn for days. A plan to distinguish the fire was

development by the Emergency Response Team. Around 3pm they began to address the asphalt fire

together with the Superior fire department. A fire truck drove to the edge of the crude unit and

emergency responders’ sprayed dry chemical fire extinguish inside the fire that broke out. Responders
also used two stationary hoses called monitors to shoot into the fire to extinguish the flames. All these

fire have been put out over by the storage tanks. Emergency responders began to approach the large

area of burning asphalt. The emergency responders planned were to push the asphalt fire into an empty

area near the storage tanks and then aggressively attack the fire from multiple directions. First they used

two monitors, one to the North and another to the West, to sweep water to push the asphalt fire to

designated containment area. Then when the fires have been extinguished from the refinery control

unit the truck relocated so they can spray the burning asphalt from the containment area with foam

from the East. Around 5:30pm an additional team began to attack the fire from the South by spraying

foam from a monitor. At around 7pm the fire responders were fortunately able to distinguish the

asphalt fire in a matter of hours. The evacuation order was lifted and Superior residents were allowed to

return home. Nevertheless, thirty six (36) husky employees in contract worker sort medical attention for

injuries.