From Altamont Press
Fire incident at American Biofuels Bakersfield, California biodiesel facility
Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC:GSPI), which is a 35% equity owner of American Biofuels, L.L.C. (ABF), regrets to announce a fire incident ABF experienced at its Bakersfield Biodiesel Plant site on Friday Feb17. Thank God ABF’S trained personnel are safe.
The accident happened outside of the plant building when, during a transfer of methanol, a small spill occurred that ignited (ignition source unknown, probable cause static electricity). The plant was in full production mode when the outside fire spread into the building. The operators followed their training and safety procedures and quickly shut down operations. Then, when they could not contain the fire with on-site extinguishers, they left the premises and quickly notified the Fire Department and Hondo personnel in the other buildings located on the property. No other buildings were affected because they were not in close proximity. Unfortunately, ABF suffered a total loss of the building and equipment.
Joe LaStella arrived on the scene within minutes of this flare-up and interfaced immediately with the Fire Chief and other firefighters with important information on how to contain the fire. The plant burned violently for several hours and the non-hazardous plumes of smoke could be seen for miles. As a result, although the entire plant was destroyed: five biodiesel tanks (containing approx. 30,000 gallons) and 6,000 gallons of methanol were saved; and, approx. 90,000 gallons of corn oil stored in railroad cars were moved back safely with only some minor fire damage to the exterior of the cars.
The accident occurred at a most unfortunate time since ABF had finally reached a point where the biodiesel plant was in full operation. ABF was ready to process 125,000 gallons of on-hand feedstock and was negotiating an order to supply 100,000 gallons to the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line on March 11th,