Today is the 29th anniversary of the Exxon refinery explosion in Baton Rouge

In my bedroom at my parents house in Oak Hills.

The electricity blipped out for a second before the BOOM!

Went outside and the whole neighborhood was coming outside to see what the frick happened.

First thought was a plane crash.

My mom answered the phone before it went to the answering machine that morning, and my dad had to go into work at Exxon that day.

He's fine, but that's the last time she ever answered the fricking phone without it hitting the answering machine so we could hear who was calling first.

This is why when people make light of “operators” on this board I always laugh. I know it’s the favorite OT Baw profession, but it’s not a joke.

It’s not about guys sitting at a board pushing buttons. It’s about knowing which buttons to push and when to push them. And that sometimes takes place in a very quick timeframe. And getting it wrong could have devastating consequences.

Lot of responsibility there folks.

I was working in the tennis shop at Baton Rouge Country Club and the shockwave blew the double doors to the shop wide open just before the sound arrived. Doors flew open and I looked up thinking some a-hole had kicked them and then the boom and the windows rattling. Will never forget that.

Girlfriend was working downtown at Maison Blanche and they thought the building had collapsed or something. Lights went out and racks of clothes and stuff on the walls all game down.

In my house off of Millerville. I thought the roof had blown off and ran outside expecting to see the remains. Very frightening.

I was 11 years old in my room playing Tetris waiting to go to church for Christmas Eve, it blew up, the lights blinked, I was on the verge of beating my all time highest score.. And it reset.

My dad worked at Albemarle (Ethyal at the time) and the day after Christmas he had to go to work to pick up his check and I went with him since he had the two weeks off. I remember see houses with their windows blown out and it looked like a war zone, sort of, the closer you got to the plants.

quote:

---

If I recall correctly, the high that day was only 25 degrees

---

Yea the explosion overshadows that it was near a record low that day. I think officially it was 15 degrees.
And I believe last January we had a day that was the coldest day in BR since Dcember 24th, 1989.

quote:

---

Heard and felt it in my parents house in Denham Springs ... thought the hot water heater in the attic blew.

---

Same but Live Oak.

quote:

---

Yea the explosion overshadows that it was near a record low that day. I think officially it was 15 degrees. And I believe last January we had a day that was the coldest day in BR since Dcember 24th, 1989.

---

I remember it getting down to 9 or 10 degrees once in the 80s. Almost every house on our street had busted pipes.