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VERNAL — Two people were transported to the hospital with burns Monday when a pressure washer caught fire at MCW Energy, an oil sands recovering facility, officials said.
The Vernal City Uintah County Fire Department responded to the area near 4121 W. State route 121, where the pressure washer had caught fire, spreading to surrounding equipment, including a “very flammable” condensate tank and a conveyor belt, among other things, according to Jeremy Raymond director of the Uintah Fire District.
Some of the employees tried to extinguish the fire with two fire extinguishers, but were unable to and evacuated the plant, Raymond said.
Fire crews extinguished the fire within about 30 minutes. The company estimated the fire damage to cost about $100,000, Raymond said.
Both victims were transported to an area hospital by Gold Cross ambulance, where they were treated for burns on their upper body. The victims, who were both in stable condition as of Monday afternoon, were working on the pressure washer when it malfunctioned, Raymond said.
James Ginty, general manager for MCW Energy, said one of the victims was transported to the burn center in Salt Lake to receive skin grafts on his hands. The other, who is the plant manager, received burns on his forearms but will not need skin grafts.
A third employee experienced smoke inhalation and was transported to the hospital, but was later released. He returned to work, but Ginty gave him the day off, Ginty said.
The company had rented the pressure washer to clean the site, and the equipment continuously backfired, shooting a 4 to 5-foot flame out of the top of the machine, Ginty said.
The fire destroyed the pressure washer and burned a conveyor belt, which will be replaced with a spare conveyor belt Tuesday, but the damage to other site equipment was minimal. The conveyor belt will be running by Wednesday, Ginty said.
MCW Energy is a new pilot program plant extracted out of another location near Vernal that extracts oils out of sand, Raymond said.
Contributing: Cleon Wall
