An apparent lightning strike started a fire that spread to two tanks of an isolated oil tank battery on Citation Oil Property off of the South Hoots Chapel Road early Wednesday night.
Odin Fire Chief Greg Smith says the tanks worked properly so the fire was confined.
“When I first got there the fire was coming out of the vent cap. Salem’s engine was the first one there. We pulled the line off their truck and we pulled a second line off and went up a staircase. Both of these tanks were 3-4 feet apart and we were able to extinguish both of the fires using water and a fog pattern to push the flames away from the vent cap. Once we did that the fire was out.”
Smith expects damage to be minimal, basically to the area of the one tank that took the lightning strike.
Since Smith wasn’t sure if there would be problems several other departments were called on mutual aid to bring additional water to the scene. They were Sandoval, Centralia Fire Protection District and Kell. The Kinmundy-Alma Fire Department stood by at the Salem fire station in the event of another fire and Centralia City Firefighters stood by at the Odin Fire Station.
There were no injuries.
Smith notes this same oil tank fire was struck by lightning 10 to 15 years ago.
