‘We heard a loud bang;’ 1 hurt after oil refinery explosion in Ohio
A person is hurt after an explosion at an oil refinery in Ohio.
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Defiance firefighters were dispatched around 4 p.m. after an explosion caused a fire at Glycerin Traders, according to CBS affiliate WTOL in Toledo.
The Defiance Police Department posted a warning on social media Wednesday afternoon asking the public to avoid the area “due to an emergency situation.”
Fire Chief Bill Wilkins said the property has “extensive damage,” but no indication of what happened.
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Businesses and residents also told WANE-TV that they heard and felt the explosion.
“I thought somebody actually like hit our house and I was like, ‘Oh, what the heck?’” said Robert Clark. “And so I turned around and he’s like, ‘No way,’ and when you turn around you saw a big metal thing go about 10-20 feet in the air.”
Aaron Johnson lives across the street from the facility and thought it was thunder at first, WTOL reports.
“We heard a loud bang,” he said. “I see the buildings start to collapse, the roof caved in and yeah, it was just real crazy. There was a lot of smoke. I just was worried that there were people in there and if anybody got hurt.”
Glycerin Traders processes raw glycerin to produce crude glycerin, reclaimed methanol, and fatty acids, and provides other services, according to its website.
The extent of that person’s injuries is unknown currently.
