Fire At Tulsa Chemical Company Contained After Explosions, Plumes Of Smoke

A fire at Axel Royal Manufacturing’s petroleum tank farm in Tulsa has been contained after sending plumes of black smoke into the air and causing nearby explosions.

Witnesses described the scene as alarming.

Johnny Qualls, who owns Lot A Burger across the street, said the explosions shook the ground and buildings.

“We got in the building and it was shaking the building pretty hard, you can feel it through the ground, it felt like a pretty good earthquake, almost,” Qualls said.

Firefighters say the fire started near the tank farm, where crews used water to cool the tanks and foam to extinguish the flames.

Andy Little with Tulsa Fire credited the department's preparedness for handling the situation.

“Each fire station regularly does tours of buildings and businesses in their district so that if we have fires like this, they know what type of products are there,” Little said.

Additional support came from firefighters at the nearby Holly Refinery, which supplied a large cache of firefighting foam.

“It’s nice to be able to call Holly Refinery because they have a large cache of firefighting foam they can bring in on a trailer quickly,” Little added.

No injuries were reported, and all employees were safely evacuated.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, which could take several days.

AXEL Royal released the following statement on Tuesday:

This morning at approx. 10:00 AM, a fire was detected at the AXEL Royal site in Tulsa. The best information at this time is that it started in the western part of the oil blending unit, but the cause is not yet determined.

All employees and visitors were safe and accounted for and were subsequently released to return home. The same applies to subsequent shifts and will remain so until called back.

The fire was controlled by the Tulsa Fire Department with the assistance of Holly Frontier's internal resources. Around 2:00 PM, the fire was reported to have been put out. The interim assessment is that damage is mainly affecting the oil blending and outdoor base oil storage tanks, of which two were directly affected by the fire. A more detailed evaluation will follow.

Environmental authorities have been duly notified.

The company has reached out to customers and will continue to update them on the impact going forward, if any.

The company is extremely grateful to the first responders involved, as well as the company employees who were at the site and helped to handle the situation. Most importantly, we are thankful that nobody was injured.

Subsequent questions can be directed to Group CEO Johan Stureson.