No injuries were reported Tuesday after a massive fire damaged a
tank farm owned by Snyder Brothers Inc., along Route 321 in the
Allegheny National Forest.

Fire officials said the cause of the 9:20 a.m. blaze is still
under investigation by the company.

The farm – which contained five large tanks containing a total
of between 20,000 and 30,000 gallons of crude oil – is located
about a mile south of the Bradford Ranger Station in Corydon
Township, according to officials.

Those first on the scene described flames shooting upwards of 75
feet in the air above the tanks; the blaze was eventually
extinguished using a combination of foam and water. Officials said
there doesn’t appear to have been any environmental damage done to
the site as a result of the fire.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Corydon Township Volunteer
Fire Department Chief Doug Cobb said Tuesday afternoon in
describing the potentially volatile scene.

Officials with the company, which is based in Kittanning, were
still on scene Tuesday night looking into the cause of the fire. A
call left seeking comment for Snyder Brothers engineer Tom
Defibaugh was not immediately returned.

Officials said there was no threat of the fire spreading into
the nearby forest land, although rangers from the national forest
went to the scene, along with crews from numerous fire companies
across the region who principally helped Corydon Township with
keeping a water supply.

According to McKean County Emergency Management Agency Deputy
Director and Hazardous Materials Officer Bruce Manning, the tanks –
each measuring about 15 to 20 feet high – are positioned
side-by-side inside an enclosed area, surrounded by a pit designed
to contain any excess residue coming from them.

“When we got there, all five tanks were on fire and they were
venting through the top,” Cobb said, adding the intense heat
associated with the fire caused the valves on the tank to melt,
with some crude leaking out and catching on fire. “There was also a
two-inch (natural) gas line that was departed because of the
heat.”

Cobb said when firefighters arrived on scene, the 500-barrel
tanks were immediately doused with foam and then cooled down by
water.

“Everything was contained in the pit, and when we left, Snyder
Brothers had vac trucks in there taking care of the oil,” Cobb
said.

Manning said representatives from the state Department of
Environmental Protection were on scene to monitor the site.

“Everything that was feeding the tanks from the woods where the
pumps were had been shut down (while the fire was ongoing),”
Manning said, adding the main tanks themselves were never ruptured
during the fire.

“If one of them (tanks) would have opened up, we would still be
there and have a larger problem on our hands,” Manning said, adding
the fire never threatened the nearby forest land because there is a
large area cleared out around the tanks. “With as much snow as
we’ve gotten, it (fire) wouldn’t have gotten far anyhow.”

Manning said HAZMAT officials from neighboring Warren County
were originally called to the scene to supply absorbent material,
but were turned around because the tanks didn’t breach.

The main source of difficulty for firefighters was the lack of a
water source in the area, according to Manning. That led to a
number of local departments providing mutual aid at the scene with
tankers and foam transports.

There was no immediate word on how much monetary damage the fire
caused to the tanks and related equipment, or how long the tanks
had been located at the site.

In addition to McKean County EMA, DEP, forest rangers and
Corydon Township, providing assistance at the scene were members of
the Kane, Bradford Township, Highland Township (Elk County),
Derrick City, Lewis Run, Lafayette Township and Hilltop volunteer
fire departments.