As explosions and fire ripped through a massive fuel depot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, over the weekend, V.I. National Guardsmen, Hovensa workers and federal agencies from the territory all mobilized to send help.
The blaze, which erupted early Friday morning and is being investigated for signs of arson, burned more than half of the 40 tanks at the Caribbean Petroleum depot in the densely populated municipality of Bayamon, leaving the plant a charred and tangled mess.
Throughout the three-day inferno, a 10-man team from the V.I. National Guard specially trained to deal with hazardous materials and “weapons of mass destruction” helped the hundreds of fire fighters by monitoring the toxins in the air, according to Lt. Col. Millie Rosa, a spokeswoman for the Puerto Rico National Guard.
“We certainly recognize and appreciate the contribution from the U.S.V.I.,” Rosa said by phone from San Juan Tuesday. The local spokesperson for the V.I. National Guard was off-island and unavailable for comment.
“Having those soldiers here allowed us to work 24-7,” Rosa said.
The Guardsmen, members of the 23rd Civil Support Team from St. Croix, all arrived safely back home in the territory Monday, she said.
Officials and workers from Hovensa also responded to the call.
After receiving an emergency request Friday from a task force of local and federal agencies headed by the Environmental Protection Agency, Hovensa officials rushed more than 12,000 gallons of foam concentrate, in 47 bulk containers, to San Juan to help fight the fire, according to a statement issued by Hovensa Tuesday.
Operating on short orders and in heavy rain, drivers and crew from the company’s trucking contractor, Flemings’ Transport, hauled the foam to Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, where they were then transported by Puerto Rico Air National Guard crews in a C-130 cargo plane to Puerto Rico, the statement said.
“I greatly appreciate the hard work of everyone who pitched in on a Saturday, long into the night, to enable our company to quickly make this shipment of vital material so that the firefighting effort in Puerto Rico could continue uninterrupted,” Hovensa President David Huffman said in Tuesday’s statement.
The mission left enough foam at Hovensa’s St. Croix facility to combat any possible fires there, officials said.
Federal agencies have chipped in, too. At least one St. Thomas-based agent from the FBI, a specialist in explosives, flew to Puerto Rico on Friday to join the investigation into the cause of the fire, according to Special Agent Harry Rodriguez, a spokesman for the FBI in San Juan.
Officials from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could not be reached Tuesday. Their Puerto Rico counterparts were on the scene of the smoldering fire site, according to Rodriguez.
“We’ve established a command post that includes the FBI, ATF, the Puerto Rican Police explosives division and FEMA,” he said. Some 60 agents and officers have joined the investigation, working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, he said.
“We don’t know if it’s a crime scene,” said FBI Special Agent Luis Fraticelli, who was quoted by Cable News Network Tuesday.
“We don’t know if it’s an accident, so we’re not making any determinations at this point until our experts do their work, do their analysis and then provide input to us as to what they feel happened here,” he said.
Puerto Rico media reported that the government and EPA were monitoring air quality as local residents return to their homes.
The plant supplied fuel to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, some 200 Gulf gas stations on the island and also stores jet fuel, according to the online journal Caribbean Business PR.
