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GREENSBORO — Colonial Pipeline Co. will investigate why an electrical grounding system failed to prevent a fire at one of its gasoline storage tanks after it was struck by lightning early Sunday, a company spokesman said.

Colonial protects its tanks with systems designed to deflect electrical charges into the ground so routine thunderstorms don’t cause fires.

But the massive fire in one of its 72 tanks off Gallimore Dairy Road was an exception, said spokesman Sam Whitehead.

“It’s extremely rare,” Whitehead said. “I’ve been with Colonial for 40 years, and this is only the third one that I can recall.”

<See video of the blaze here>

Tank fire experts say lightning is the primary cause for those tank fires that do occur.

Sunday morning’s fire was quickly put down because of  careful planning and first-responder teamwork, according to the Greensboro Fire Department.

“There is nothing better than a good plan when a tremendous obstacle faces you,” Assistant Fire Chief David Douglas said. “And when that plan comes together.”

Firefighters responded to a 911 call from employees at the tank farm and from motorists along Interstate 40 just before
1 a.m. Five and a half hours later, the fire was declared out.

About 150 firefighters from Greensboro, High Point, Raleigh and Charlotte were involved, Douglas said, using about 2,200 gallons of specialized foam created to fight petroleum fires.

Four firefighters were treated on the scene for heat exhaustion as they faced temperatures of more than 100 degrees, but no one was seriously injured.

Firefighters rotated off the blaze throughout the night at 15- to 20-minute intervals.

About 20 law enforcement officials from the Greensboro Police Department, Guilford County Sheriff’s Office and the state Highway Patrol closed roads around the site, including parts of I-40. All roads in the area were reopened by 1:45 p.m.

Fire Chief Gregory Grayson credited good preparation for the speed with which the fire was handled — including recent training at the site of the strike itself.

“Two weeks ago, our personnel was on the site doing a training exercise for this very type of event,” Grayson said.

Douglas added that because  the fire began early Sunday when businesses were closed and traffic was at a minimum, the operation was able to occur with clockwork precision, with responders from the fire, EMS and police departments concentrating on the emergency.

“If you could script out when you’d want to have this fire, I don’t know you could pick a better day, date or time,” Douglas said.

Even though the fire department was contending with three other structure fires brought on by the overnight storms, Douglas said they were able to handle it.

“We were stretched to the max, but we didn’t break,” he  said.

At a Sunday morning news conference, Colonial Pipeline’s director of operations, Darren Pruitt, said the fire was expected to have no environmental impact and shouldn’t affect local gas prices or availability.

One tank and about 4,500 barrels of gasoline were lost, Pruitt said, but the depot was already operational again by 10 a.m. with its main line expected back up by the end of the day.

There are 42 gallons in each barrel, putting the loss at just under 190,000 gallons of gasoline.

Pruitt said cleanup would likely begin today, with the company working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency to be sure everything is done properly.

“This is a day you hope you never see, but we did plan for it,” Pruitt said.

“Everybody worked together,  and they did an amazing job. I just can’t say enough about the job they did.”

Douglas credited extensive training on disaster scenarios at the tank farm and precise execution of protocols in keeping the fire from spreading and becoming a catastrophic event.

“This had the potential to be a major event,” Douglas said. “There were people who woke up Sunday morning and didn’t even know we had a fire, and that’s a good thing.”

Late Sunday, Douglas said in a news release that a partnership between the fire department and Colonial in recent years paid off during this fire.

“Approximately four years ago, we entered into a partnership with many of the local pipelines and terminals, applied for a federal grant under Homeland Security and were awarded funds to purchase equipment specific to protection of the petroleum tank farm here in Greensboro,” Douglas wrote.

He said Colonial spent its own money to install devices allowing the fire department to pump maximum amounts of water over long distances.

“Today, our 'attack’ lines exceeded 2,500 feet in length, involving supply hoses up to 7.5 inches in diameter. At present, we are unsure of our total water usage, but it is safe to say that it will be in the hundreds of thousands,” according to Douglas.

He said that firefighters who first arrived immediately began spraying water on other nearby tanks to keep them cool as heat escaped from the burning tank.

Also working in firefighters’ favor was the fact that the surrounding tanks were mostly empty, containing only about 3,000 barrels of their 52,000-barrel capacity.

The fire was 20 to 30 feet off the ground, while the fuel level in the other tanks was about 10 feet, he said.

“The heat off the burning tank was only heating up air space and not liquid,” Douglas said.

“If it would have heated liquid, it would have started burning vapors and creating pressure.”

Douglas said the geometric dome on the tanks are designed to keep vapors from releasing and helped prevent other tanks from failing.

While the fire was ongoing, Colonial also removed fuel from the burning tank that prevented spreading, Douglas said.

“The fuel is delivered and extracted from the bottom and you have to keep in mind that the liquid was not burning; it was vapor burning,” Douglas said.

“Only the top foot of fuel was getting heated up. We were able to transfer most of the product out of the tank.”

When the fire began, he said the tank contained about 22,000 barrels of petroleum.

More than 7,500 barrels were extracted by the time firefighters began dousing the tank with foam designed to extinguish petroleum fires.

The fire department trains for various types of scenarios at Colonial frequently.

While he would not comment on other scenarios, such as a terrorist attack, Douglas said Sunday’s fire proved that the tank farm does not pose an explosion risk.

“We have said for years there is no danger of an explosion out there,” he said. “The tanks will burn, but they will not explode and this fire will dispel that myth.”

Whitehead said late Sunday that the company has comprehensive plans for all types of threats.

“We have safety and security measures in place for any type of activity that would be detrimental to the site.

 “We don’t even reveal what those are, but they are significant,” he said.

When the fire was discovered, Douglas said, workers at Colonial did exactly what they were supposed to do with the affected tank by shutting down fuel lines and following other protocols.

“A guy said it was a small fire that he could cover with a hat,” Douglas said.

“A worker started shutting off lines and before they knew it, the whole tank was on fire.”

The fire department and Colonial representatives will sit down in the coming weeks for a critical analysis of all aspects of the fire and existing protocols to see how their response can be improved if it ever happens again.

“But I want to stress we are extremely pleased with the way the plan was implemented, unfolded and the success we experienced with it,” Douglas said.

Staff Writer Dioni L. Wise contributed to this report.

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com