A man died Tuesday from severe burns suffered when several tanks at an oil refinery exploded and burned. Five other people were injured.

"It shook the house. It shook me. It shook the dog. We all shook," said Doris Cook, who lives near the Frontier Refining Inc. plant. "Believe me, that's too close for comfort."Many of the 130 refinery employees were on their lunch breaks when the tanks burned Monday.

"We were at the In and Out (hamburger stand) and ka-boom!" said Dennis McCall, a refinery construction worker.

Timothy Price, 30, died early Tuesday, according to the nursing supervisor at North Colorado Medical Center's burn unit in Greeley, Colo. He had burns over 94 percent of his body.

His stepfather and stepbrother, also severely burned in the blast, remained in critical condition at the same hospital Tuesday morning, while a third burn victim was in serious condition.

View Comments

Two other people were in stable condition with less serious injuries at De Paul Hospital in Cheyenne. One was treated for smoke inhalation, the other for second-degree burns.

Gerald Faudel, company environmental director, said the cause of the explosion and fire was still unknown.

Five of the more than 100 tanks of various petroleum products caught fire, including a 20,000-gallon tank of naphtha and a 250,000-gallon tank of a raw form of unleaded gasoline.

Officials closed a section of nearby Interstate 80 for about 30 minutes.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.