Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal
1.2 mil gallons of unleaded gas go up in flames
You'd think the folks in Kansas City, Kansas had money to burn judging by this huge bonfire they held with a reservoir full of $4-per-gallon unleaded. Actually, the fire was caused by a lightning strike Tuesday night. After battling it for some time, firefighters said they would have to let it burn itself out. That could take two days, with 1.2 million gallons of gasoline being burned in the process. The fire apparently started around 7:30 PM at the Magellan Pipeline terminal near General Motors' Fairfax plant. The tank exploded and employees quickly mobilized to keep it isolated and prevent the fire from spreading to surrounding storage tanks. The smoke from fire was so bad, however, that the Kansas City airport had to be shut down for a while, but everything is back to normal now. Thankfully, nobody was hurt in the blaze. No word yet on what effect this will have on local gas prices, but we can't imagine that it will help. Thanks for the tip, Cody!
[Source: KMBC-TV]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ML 6:15PM (6/04/2008)
Don't they have lightning rods over their tanks? If not, seems like a no-brainer to me(!).
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Don 9:48AM (6/05/2008)
They should have better safeguards. What a waste.
British_Rover 6:16PM (6/04/2008)
Man I can see gas prices taking a big jump because of this just like when the wind picks up in the gulf. Any excuse at all to raise gas prices.
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david 6:17PM (6/04/2008)
I'm sure gas prices won't go up again over this. [/sarcasm]
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MICKoWAR 12:02AM (6/05/2008)
Haha dont be too sure on that, i can garentee all the locals will be funding the fuel burn off, however, I read this book that really helps with fuel saving so its probably a good idea to read up on it! :D http://www.total-driving.com Fingers crossed it doesnt mess everyone up further with the petrol prices!
david 1:04AM (6/05/2008)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most people here already know about how to get the optimal gas mileage without spending $15 on a book. Drive slower, brake slower, make sure your tires are filled correctly, and so on. Oh, and I'm sure the 'fill up when it's cold' thing is in there, and it doesn't work. Gas pumps are already calibrated to deliver appropriate volumes as the density changes with temperature (not that the volume changes much with temperature when in liquid form)
At least it isn't another "water to gas" BS book/device.
nist7 6:20PM (6/04/2008)
Wow. That's scary. I was driving to school this morning and noticed a huge plume of black smoke hanging over the downtown area. I knew immediately it had to be a huge fire of some sort. Good thing no one was hurt.
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Todd 6:20PM (6/04/2008)
Dissipating lightening strikes through the use of common lightening rods ( available at the Home Depot for like 20 bucks ) would violate Big Oils first, and only, business rule:
Thou shall profit from misery.
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Luis 12:30AM (6/05/2008)
@ Todd: It's LIGHTNING...ok let's move on.
Cam 6:29PM (6/04/2008)
That's rather similar to the Buncefield Oil Fire that happened a while ago in the UK which shut down most of the major motorways in London as well as Heathrow because of the smoke that could be seen from most of Europe
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Michael 6:29PM (6/04/2008)
Epic fail.
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vwboyaf1 6:32PM (6/04/2008)
That could have filled about 97,308 cars with about 13 gallons each. What a waste.
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2004m3driver 6:33PM (6/04/2008)
thats 5.4 million dollars worth of gas! roughly the same as 4 market rate Enzos crashing together.
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Chris 7:21PM (6/04/2008)
Is it required to have such excellent math skills to buy an M3?
ambientFLIER 8:59PM (6/04/2008)
I'd rather see 4 crashed enzos, seeing as how they're hideous.
Smeagle 2:49AM (6/05/2008)
M3 drivers always have excellent math skills. It comes from regularly having to tally up enormous repair bills.
almost Dr. G.. 7:49AM (6/05/2008)
@ smeagle: LOL!
@ the others who cant spell lightning. get firefox, it does automatic spell checks on whatever you write.
Starnerf 8:38AM (6/05/2008)
The problem with using spellcheck is that lightening is a valid word, but it's a verb that means "increasing brightness".
2004m3driver 1:05PM (6/05/2008)
@Smeagle
I hate you.
Steven 6:36PM (6/04/2008)
"In other news, it was a surprise treat today at the OPEC conference, where each of the 12 nations received flag poles from Iran."
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