According to Big Spring Mayor Russ McEwen, the explosion - which enveloped much of the refinery in flames shortly after 8 a.m. today - invoked only minimal injuries.

"At this point in time, four injuries - five if you count the lady in the car - have been reported, and none of them are life threatening. As a matter of fact, someone with Congressman Randy Neugebauer's office talked with the gentleman who was taken to Lubbock, and he's lucid and talking with people. It really is a miracle. The Lord really blessed us today in Big Spring in that no one was killed or hurt very seriously.

"My understanding is some debris hit her windshield and came into the car," McEwen said, describing the fifth injury, sustained by a motorist traveling on Interstate Highway 20 at the time of the blast. "However, she is home now. It wasn't bad at all. Just by my own observations, the debris spread across the Interstate Highway. It wasn't like four miles or anything like that.

An Alon employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Monday the cause of the explosion was a propylene tank leak that could not be stopped, causing a mist-like vapor to gather in the refinery. According to the witness, the vapor got into a cracker heater and an alkaline unit, causing both to explode simultaneously.

Alon USA has not released any information regarding the cause of the explosion or the extent of the damage to the refinery at the time this report went to press.

County Judge Mark Barr confirmed employees at the Sid Richardson Carbon Black plant were evacuated after the blast.

"The sheriff thought it was best to move some of the people out of Sid Richardson (Carbon Black)," said Barr. "As you can see, the smoke is going over there. This is a precautionary measure and we want to make sure we take care of those folks. I imagine there were 40 or 50 employees who were evacuated.

McEwen, joined by Barr and State Rep. Joe Heflin, flew over the refinery in a helicopter in the hours following the blast, and according to McEwen, efforts to extinguish fires still raging at the facility are going well.

"We just finished flying over the Alon refinery, and  - obviously, we're not experts - we're very pleased with what we're seeing right now," said McEwen. "There isn't nearly as much smoke and the fire is being contained more and more, and the main thing that is burning right now is some storage tanks to the east of the plant. We were very pleased to see the fire had been contained, and we feel very good about it.

"It's dissipating because of the wind direction," McEwen added. "That makes a tremendous amount of difference. And we are having constant conversations with Alon. We have a command post inside, and they are updating us every 15 to 20 minutes. So we're keeping an eye on it to make sure the public is safe and taken care of."

"From the way I understand it, it's mostly asphalt," said Barr, pointing to the black cloud rising from the refinery, "which is a very oily product, and makes great, black smoke."

Reports of an explosion at the Big Spring Refinery - along with a massive concussive wave that swept through much of Big Spring and the surrounding area - came at approximately 8:15 a.m. Black smoke could be seen rising from the facility.

Traffic on Interstate Highway 20 between the Salem Road exit and Highway 350 exit was shut down following the explosion, with local law enforcement also blocking off down several roads inside the city, including portions of FM 700, 11th Place and the north and south Interstate Highway service roads.

According to officials, a one-mile radius around the refinery was shut down to traffic.

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it