A Providence Fire Department investigator says a lightning strike probably was not the cause of a fire that broke out as a Danish tanker was unloading gasoline at the Port of Providence during a July 18 thunderstorm.
“There has been no official determination yet, outside of the fact that just about everybody involved in the investigation has written off the idea of any possible lightning cause,” the department’s Joseph Dorsey said last week.
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Several active probes are investigating the fire, which burned for days at the pier of a fuel terminal operated by Houston-based Motiva Enterprises. The company supplies gasoline to Shell stations in Rhode Island and the East Coast.
The U.S. Coast Guard, R.I. Emergency Management Agency and Providence Fire Department have launched separate investigations into the blaze. Yet representatives from each said last week that they had no final determinations about the cause of the fire.
Crews continued to remove the wreckage from the charred pier last week, providing investigators with more evidence to evaluate.
Providence investigator Dorsey said that, though the storm “definitely” played a role in the incident, surveillance videos and witness accounts have led him to believe the cause was not a lighting strike. He declined to speculate on other potential causes.
Carl Moberg, a civilian investigator for the U.S. Coast Guard, said he expects all the burned fuel pipes and pilings from the pier to be collected for inspection by the end of this month.
“It’s going to still be a minimum of a few more weeks to months before we are done,” Moberg said.
According to reports by the company and various officials, the tanker Nordeuropa, a 600-foot vessel owned by Norden A/S of Denmark, had nearly finished unloading fuel at the Motiva terminal when the fire began. The tanker pulled away from the pier without significant damage, and was later deemed seaworthy by the Coast Guard.
Federal regulations prohibit marine vessels from unloading shipments during severe weather, Moberg said. Yet it is unclear whether Motiva or the tanker operator, or both, might be penalized.
Moberg said each violation carries a fine of $32,500, and added that multiple fines for that amount might be imposed after the investigation.
Gov. Donald L. Carcieri ordered a state investigation July 19, saying in a statement that “like lighting a cigarette while filling your car’s gas tank, unloading a volatile shipment during a major thunderstorm is unnecessarily risky.”
The governor has instructed Maj. Gen. Robert Bray, director of the state Emergency Management Agency, to report back by Aug. 25 – or within 30 days of Carcieri’s initial order. That report is expected to evaluate how well state and city agencies reacted to the fire, how to improve on their response and how to prevent similar incidents.
Jeff Neal, a spokesman for the governor, last week said the state would not comment on what actions it might take until Bray completes the report. Yet he did say the governor has sought federal funding for “consequence modeling” for the Port of Providence.
“That is a sensitive area,” Neal said. “It is an area that the governor has identified for some time that we need to look at and ensure that we have the proper safeguards in place.”
Last week, a barge was expected to go to the damaged pier to remove the wreckage, said Brian Delaney, a spokesman for Motiva, which is jointly owned by Shell Oil Co. and Saudi Refining Inc. A 60-foot gantry crane collapsed during the fire, crushing fuel pipes at the pier, Delaney said. Crews were to drill into the damaged pipes to check for any remaining fuel, most of which was removed shortly after the fire.
Shut down since the blaze, the Motiva terminal has holding tanks for gasoline, ethanol, jet fuel, heating oil and diesel, according Delaney and the company’s Web site. It can store nearly 1.5 million gallons of fuel, making it the second-largest terminal Motiva owns in New England.
Delaney said that Motiva wants to reopen the north side of the pier – the least damaged in the fire – and begin accepting fuel shipments from barges within five weeks. (The south side of the pier, where the fire began, will be closed until repairs are completed, he said.)
In the meantime, he said, Motiva has been using its two terminals in Connecticut to handle fuel supply for its customers in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. It has contracted with unnamed terminal operators in Providence and in Massachusetts to store its fuel.
The Motiva spokesman acknowledged that some Shell stations in the region had gone without certain grades of gasoline after the fire. He declined to say what expenses Motiva has incurred due to the fire and the repairs.
