Gov. John Hickenlooper in a statement Friday said that there doesn’t appear to be a relationship between the circumstances of two recent fatal oil and gas-related explosions, located about 4 miles apart in Weld County.
The explosion of an oil tank battery in Mead on Thursday afternoon comes on the heels of a fatal April 17 explosion of a Firestone house, and both are linked to facilities owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.
Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission spokesman Todd Hartman said they dispatched an environmental protection specialist Friday to determine whether the accident resulted in any releases to the environment and the state will supervise Anadarko’s remediation of any such releases.
He said the commission requires Anadarko to file an accident report, and has requested the company conduct a “root cause” analysis and provide a written report of that analysis.
Mead officials said they have reached out to oil and gas operators in the town limits and Mountain View Fire Protection District officials said they are going door-to-door in the Mead neighborhood to confirm there is no gas in the area, where the blast killed one worker and injured three others.
“As of this time, no gas has been detected at the site or in the nearby homes,” Mountain View Fire spokeswoman Emma Douglas said in a statement Friday morning.
The investigation includes officials from the fire protection district, Weld County Sheriff’s Office, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.
About 3:15 p.m. Thursday, an Anadarko oil tank battery exploded while contractors performed maintenance off Colo. 66 near Colorado Boulevard in Mead’s Grand View Estates neighborhood. Initially, three workers were said to have been injured, though a fourth was later found dead.
Two of the victims were taken to North Colorado Medical Center for burn treatment and the third worker was taken to the Medical Center of the Rockies, Weld County sheriff’s Cpl. Matt Turner said.
He said the identity of the deceased would be released later by the Weld County Coroner’s Office.
The second recent explosion — and third fatality — in Weld County comes while Anadarko is fielding of questions following the Firestone explosion, which killed Mark Martinez and Joey Irwin.
The cause of that has been linked to a severed flow line thought to be abandoned that leached gas from an active well less than 200 feet from the house.
Regarding the Mead event, Anadarko spokeswoman Helen Wells said work crews were conducting maintenance associated with a facility upgrade initiated in April 2017. She said they were consolidating two tank facilities into one as part of Anadarko’s emissions-management efforts.
An oil tank battery is a grouping of tanks used for storing product.
She did not respond to questions about what type of upgrades they were performing but did say the facility is unrelated to any of the 3,000 wells the company temporarily shut in after the Firestone tragedy.
“At this time, the site has been secured and an investigation has been initiated in cooperation with local authorities and the involved contract companies to determine the cause,” she said in the initial release.
Amelia Arvesen: 303-684-5212, arvesena@times-call.com or twitter.com/ameliaarvesen
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