Firefighters battled a fire at the Point Breeze Terminal in Southwest Philadelphia Monday night.
The fire started in piping between storage tanks at Kinder Morgan’s Point Breeze Terminal facility on the 6300 block of W. Passyunk Avenue around 6:45 p.m., Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said. The fire reached two alarms and the facility was shut down and evacuated.
Thiel said the fire department's hazardous materials team helped to contain the fire. Crews went in and shut off the valves to prevent the fire from reaching a large storage tank containing about 1.5 million gallons of ethanol, Thiel said.
"It was extremely dangerous," Thiel said of sending his firefighters in to close the valves.
All personnel at the facility were accounted for and no injuries were reported. It was placed under control just after 9 p.m.
Firefighters and Kinder Morgan’s emergency response team continued to monitor the area into Tuesday morning. Surrounding streets near the facility were closed.
An unknown amount of ethanol was released, but contained to the area adjacent to the tank, Thiel said.
Kinder Morgan will work to clean up any released product, Thiel said.
