Flames and smoke poured into the sky Saturday over an oil refinery where lightning set off a fire and an explosion that was felt miles away, authorities said.
No injuries were reported and there were no immediate evacuation orders in the south-central Oklahoma town, said Mike Hancock, a spokesman for Wynnewood Refinery Co.
Flames and smoke boiled hundreds of feet into the air from two 80,000-gallon tanks in the Wynnewood Refinery complex, officials said.
Firefighters doused the area surrounding the tanks Saturday, Hancock said.
"Tank fires are pretty pesky fires. They're easy to keep contained, but they're hard to fight," Hancock said. "It's hard to estimate how long it will be. It can take a day or so to burn the product."
Earth Changes
Earthquakes are a relatively rare phenomenon in the UK but the country has suffered a number in recent years.
LISBON, Portugal - It was a chilling discovery: a mass grave of human bones _ skulls smashed and scorched by fire, dog bites on a child's thigh bone, a forehead with an apparent bullet hole.
WAYCROSS, Ga. - A few spot fires ignited Saturday afternoon across a highway from a massive wildfire and firefighters struggled to put them out before they could spread in the miles of tinder-dry forest beyond.
LOS ANGELES - A bloom of ocean algae that produces a toxic acid has sickened and killed hundreds of birds, sea lions and dolphins in California, environmentalists said.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Wreckage from a World War II torpedo boat was tossed up from the sea in the Solomon Islands after a powerful 8.1 earthquake hit the area in early April, an official said Friday.
Five plague-infected squirrels and a wild rabbit found in a Denver park are a reminder that Coloradans should take precautions to protect themselves from the potentially deadly disease, health officials say.
A parasite carried by cats is killing off sea otters, a veterinary specialist has told a major US science conference.
The Californian researcher has called for owners to keep their cats indoors.
Cat faeces carrying Toxoplasma parasites wash into US waterways and then into the sea where they can infect otters, causing brain disease.
The parasite is familiar to medical researchers, as it can damage human foetuses when expectant mothers become infected while changing cat litter.
The Californian researcher has called for owners to keep their cats indoors.
Cat faeces carrying Toxoplasma parasites wash into US waterways and then into the sea where they can infect otters, causing brain disease.
The parasite is familiar to medical researchers, as it can damage human foetuses when expectant mothers become infected while changing cat litter.
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What is causing many California sea otters to become weak, disoriented, and even unable to eat properly? The answer may hint at trouble for humans too.
What is causing many California sea otters to become weak, disoriented, and even unable to eat properly? The answer may hint at trouble for humans too.
The possibility is growing that Britain in 2007 may experience a summer of unheard-of high temperatures, with the thermometer even reaching 40C, or 104F,a level never recorded in history.
The likelihood of such a "forty degree summer" is being underlined by the tumbling over the past year of a whole series of British temperature records, strongly suggesting that the British Isles have begun to experience a period of rapid, not to say alarming, warming. This would be quite outside all historical experience, but entirely consistent with predictions of climate change.
The Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, in a joint forecast with the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, has already suggested that 2007 will be the hottest year ever recorded globally.
The likelihood of such a "forty degree summer" is being underlined by the tumbling over the past year of a whole series of British temperature records, strongly suggesting that the British Isles have begun to experience a period of rapid, not to say alarming, warming. This would be quite outside all historical experience, but entirely consistent with predictions of climate change.
The Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, in a joint forecast with the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, has already suggested that 2007 will be the hottest year ever recorded globally.
