re: Baton Rouge people - how cold was it when Exxon exploded in 1989?

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I talked to an old man that worked there at the time. He told me it happened because of a gas leak. There was a truck in the area of the leak that two workers got in and when they cranked it up, the spark from the ignition caused the explosion.

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That's pretty close. I was told a truck went under an overpass and ignited the gas. Stoy found below my comment.
I was off that day and driving to my In-laws for Christmas. I was in a new Maxima going down Dyer Rd to Baker when the radio station stopped playing. I switched to another station, and nothing. I was pissed--thinking I had a new car and the radio just went on the fritz. My wife exclaimed my name and pointed to a growing black mushroom cloud on my left. I said, "Man, I hope that's not Exxon." When I got to my In-laws I called my unit in the Chemical plant (Refirery side). One of the guys there answered the phone and said, "Everybody is okay!" and hung up (the phone had not stopped ringing from the time of the blast). I went to work the next day not knowing what to expect. Luckily, all the heavylifting had been done and a very bad situation was in control thanks to all those who put their lives on the line.

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An eight-inch-diameter pipeline operating at approximately 700-pounds-per-square-inch ruptured, releasing a mix of ethane and propane. The record low temperature of 10°F for the region is believed to have contributed to the rupture. After a few minutes, the resulting release was ignited, causing a vapor cloud explosion. The explosion shattered windows up to six miles away and could be felt as far as 15 miles away. Seventeen additional pipelines, in a pipe rack containing 70 lines, were ruptured by the explosion.

The resulting fire involved two large storage tanks holding 3.6 million gallons of diesel, 12 small tanks containing a total of 882,000 gallons of lube oil, and two separator units. The explosion resulted in the partial loss of electricity, steam, and fire water for the refinery, since two power lines, two steam lines and a 12-inch diameter fire water line were located in this pipe rack. Upon the initial explosion, the lines for the dock fire pumps were damaged. Therefore, the water for fire fighting had to be supplied with the remaining plant fire pumps and municipal fire trucks taking draught from alternate sources. Approximately 48,000 gallons of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) concentrate, 200 fire brigade members, and 13 pumper units were used during the fire fighting effort, which was successful in extinguishing the fire approximately 14 hours after the initial explosion. Because of this incident, the refinery was completely shut down for three days and operated at reduced capacity for an additional three weeks.

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