Global Courant
Evacuations and shelter orders remained in effect for residents and businesses around a lightning-driven tank fire that sent a plume of smoke over Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Saturday.
In the evening, Louisiana State Police determined that a lightning strike was the cause of the fire in one tank at the Calcasieu Refining Co. tank farm. in Lake Charles shortly before 2 p.m., the department said.
The company refines crude oil, operates a pipeline and operates an oil products transfer facility.
No one was hurt. The refinery did not return calls seeking comment.
Evacuations were ordered Saturday when a fire broke out at Calcasieu Refining Co. near Lake Charles, La. Louisiana State Police
Mandatory evacuations were in effect for those within 1.5 miles of the tank farm. The outer limits of a shelter-in-place order have been reduced from 5 miles to 3 miles, according to the Lake Charles Fire Department.
According to the police, the fire raged around 10 p.m. local time.
Dick Gremillion, director of the Calcasieu Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said approximately 70 residents of assisted living homes were among those displaced, reported Lake Charles NBC affiliate KPLC.
A shelter has been opened at the Burton Coliseum for people who need to evacuate, Gremillion told the station.
Lightning swept across the region as a front of unstable air moved east, bringing severe thunderstorms, hail and the threat of flash flooding, according to the National Weather Service on Saturday.
In an earlier statement, the fire service described the blaze as a “crude oil tank fire.”
Port director Ricky Self told KPLC the site on Thursday was home to a new fire that may have started in an area where motor oil was stored for commercial vehicles.
It was not clear if the fires were related.
