BAIJI, Iraq—An explosion at a fuel storage tank caused a huge blaze at Iraq's largest refinery on Monday, inflicting burns on at least 36 workers and killing three before being brought under control, witnesses said.
An engineer at Baiji refinery, some 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, said the blast had destroyed the plant's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) unit, where the fire had broken out, but other operations were unaffected.
A Reuters cameraman at the complex said he saw at least one dead body and had counted 36 others suffering from burns. Workers were evacuated as flames raged through the LPG unit.
A police official in Baiji said three people had been killed in the blaze—one engineer and two others whose bodies were charred beyond recognition.
Two hours after the blaze erupted, firefighters succeeded in bringing it under control, said the engineer, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity. He blamed the fire on an accident.
"There was no sabotage. It was caused by a technical fault," he said.
He said the LPG unit had been shut down for repairs and was coming back online on Monday when it was rocked by an explosion at 2.30 p.m. (1130 GMT) and then a second a few minutes later.
The initial explosion was at a storage tank containing 5 million litres of fuel.
Firefighters, Ambulances
"This is the biggest fire I have ever seen at Baiji refinery. We have not had a fire like this before," said the engineer, employed at the complex since 2003.
The engineer said he knew of one fatality and 24 injured.
At least 10 firefighting trucks were on the scene and more were summoned from nearby towns to help battle the blaze as a fleet of ambulances transported the injured to hospital.
The Baiji refinery is a key hub in Iraq's oil infrastructure, pumping crude oil from the country's northern oilfields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. It also refines crude for domestic consumption.
Pumping operations through Iraq's northern pipeline were halted on Dec. 31 because Ceyhan's storage tanks were full but resumed on Friday, a shipping source said on Monday.
The Baiji refinery has a capacity of of 310,000 barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and has been operating at less than full capacity due to power cuts and other problems including fires.
In January 2007, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said the country was losing $1.5 billion annually from attacks and theft at Baiji, which is vital to the nation's economy.
The internal pipeline taking crude oil from Iraq's northern Kirkuk oilfields to the refinery has also been prone to attacks by militants seeking to disrupt the flow of oil.
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