Zh-Zhong-Xing

On Feb 27, 2017, a conveyer belt fire near the "Jobst Oldendorff" at the Port Arthur Refinery west caught fire. The conveyor belt was loading a silo with 10,000 tons of wood pellets caught fire. Port Arthur firefighters arrived to the scene at 3 p.m. jointly with authorities from the Port Arthur Police Department and tamed the fire after about 1,5 hours. City of Beaumont firefighters also assisted putting out the flames. Port officials released its personnel working in that area in case of an explosion and longshoremen stopped loading in the area. The fire at the Port of Port Arthur is now contained and did not spread to the warehouse. The ship crew had a supervisor on fire watch tonight to make sure the conveyer belt did not flare up again. Fire watchers with both the Port of Port Arthur and the fire department also remained on duty around the clock keeping an eye on the situation. It was believed the fire's origin was electrical. A spark set the wood on the belt on fire. The silo, one of five into which the ship was scheduled to offload 50,000 tons of wood pellets, was three-quarters full at the time of the fire. The silo was at the front end of the ship, about 600 feet from the fuel, which reduced the chance of a blast. Everything was on fire on the belt, in the hole of the ship and the belt made out of rubber, which caused big black smoke. The fire was not expected to have any impact on the port itself. Reports with photos and video: http://www.kvue.com/news/local/port-arthur-beaumont-fire-departments-fighting-ship-fire-at-port-of-port-arthur/415725229 http://kfdm.com/news/local/fire-reported-at-port-of-port-arthur http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Video-10-000-tons-of-wood-pallets-cause-Port-10964102.php http://fox4beaumont.com/news/local/wood-pellet-fire-out-on-conveyor-belt-at-port-of-pa-no-injuries