WOODS CROSS -- City leaders will meet with the public tonight to talk about last week's Silver Eagle refinery explosion that rocked a neighborhood, forced four families out of their homes and damaged possibly 120 houses.
The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. at the Legacy Preparatory Academy, 2214 S. 1250 West.
Over the weekend, federal investigators announced their preliminary results regarding the Nov. 4 explosion that could be heard and felt as far away as south Layton.
The refinery blast severely damaged 10 homes and was caused by a burst pipe that sprayed hydrogen gas onto a nearby heater, said the lead investigator for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents.
The CSB's Donald Holmstrom said investigators don't know why the pipe suffered what he called a "catastrophic" failure.
"There was a large fireball in the unit," he said. "The unit was immediately engulfed in flames that went as high as 100 feet in the air. We're extremely fortunate that no one was hurt."
Holmstrom said the safety board will test what's left of the pipe to determine what went wrong.
On Monday, Silver Eagle delivered to nearby residents a letter -- the third since the explosion -- updating them on the situation.
The company has a claims table set up on a nearby street as neighbors and others drop by with questions.
"People from Silver Eagle are going around to the homes, making sure things are on track," said Cindy Gubler, a representative for the company.
Refinery officials have put four families in temporary housing and said they are processing the 120 claims for damage.
Two privately led neighborhood meetings have been held on the topic since the Wednesday explosion.
But the Woods Cross City Council decided a special session should be arranged to fully air the city's side of the situation and hear from residents.
"We've had a lot of issues raised and concerns by people, so the city council wanted to meet," said City Administrator Gary Uresk.
Gubler was unsure whether company officials would be able to attend.
The CSB met with company officials and is still investigating a January fire that burned for 11 hours at the plant and forced an evacuation of Woods Cross homes. There have been fires in three other years at Silver Eagle.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration also met with the company in the last week.
OSHA records show the company was cited for five violations in the January fire, but the case file had not been closed. Other violations, 18 in total, were listed by OSHA in 2002 and 2004 reports.
Holmstrom said last week's failure occurred near the pipe's elbow on the horizontal section and spewed the 800- degree hydrogen east toward a nearby neighborhood.
The 10-inch pipe was carrying 630 pounds of pressurized hydrogen when it ruptured around 9 a.m. that day.
The pipe was attached to a reactor that removes waxes from diesel fuel. The pipe normally carries diesel and hydrogen, but the refinery was performing maintenance at the time of the failure and mostly hydrogen was in the pipe, Holmstrom said.
The CSB plans to evaluate the mechanical integrity of the faulty refinery unit and will look at safety issues regarding how close the homes are to the company operations.
If you go
The Woods Cross city meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. today at Legacy Prepatory Academy, 2214 S. 1250 West, which is accessed off of 2600 South at 1250 West.
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