NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Firefighters have put out a massive fire that erupted after several oil tankers ignited at a used oil recycling refinery in Northwest Miami-Dade.
At least 30 Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units responded to EMC Oil Corporation, located along Northwest 68th Street and 84th Avenue, just after 7 a.m., Wednesday.
Flames shot into the sky as a massive plume of smoke stretched for miles.
7SkyForce HD flew over the scene where heavy black smoke and flames could be seen coming from one tanker.
Within minutes, the flames spread to several other oil tankers in the lot.
Video shot by MDFR crews captured one of the blasts.
“We had multiple explosions during firefighting, which made us have to attack the fire from a little bit further back,” said MDFR Lt. Kristen Miller.
Thirty crews battled the blaze, which proved to be a more dangerous fire than usual. That’s because firefighters weren’t sure how much fuel they were up against.
“These types of fires are extremely challenging in many different ways, but again because of the intensity [and] the product,” said Miller.
A fire tornado was spotted spinning up from the oil refinery.
7SkyForce captured a fire tornado spinning up in the oil refinery blaze in Doral pic.twitter.com/Tj4KNFoPyd
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) January 15, 2020
“We had multiple explosions during firefighting, which made us have to attack the fire from a little bit further back. We used our ladder units and also, like I said, our foam truck to be able to get in and penetrate the fire,” said Miller.
Just before 8:30 a.m., MDFR officials said the fire was under control.
Smoke coming from the fire could be seen from miles away.
The site is now a flooded mess with several trucks and other large pieces of equipment destroyed.
“We used our ladder units and also our foam truck to be able to get in and penetrate the fire,” said Miller.
Investigators spent hours at the refinery meeting with the owners and managers as they worked to determine what caused the fire.
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