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WOODS CROSS -- Neighbors in Woods Cross are expressing mixed feelings as the Silver Eagle Refinery resumes operations.
The refinery in a statement issued Wednesday said Crude-oil Unit One was started up at 7:00 a.m. and things were "running smoothly."
"They're moving forward, and our lives are not moving forward," Kristi Horne told KSL Newsradio. "We're just stuck here and not exactly happy about it."
Horne, her disabled husband and her two children are now living in a rental up the street from their house located near 2225 South and 925 West. It sustained structural damage around the roof, and the Hornes reported "projectile" glass from the explosion on Nov. 4.
Some homes in the neighborhood still have visible damage. Workers were busy at one house that was knocked off its foundation by the blast. The owners still cannot return.
The Hornes say they've been pushing the company to buy their damaged home.
"It's something that's happened to us and it's affected us emotionally to the point where there's no way we can go back there," Horne said. "My husband has great concerns about him being in a wheelchair and not being able to get out, and what if he would have been home along with the kids, he couldn't have gotten the kids out."
Horne says she hasn't heard from Silver Eagle in a month-and-a-half.
"The refinery actually has done quite a bit, but I feel like their insurance company is the one that is dragging," said Kelly Slagowski, another homeowner with damage from the explosion.
Slagowski is still apprehensive about a future mishap.
"I feel like the refinery is being a lot safer; however, I was home when it happened," Slagowski said. "It was really scary, and I'll always have that fear in the back of my mind that it could happen again."
Another neighbor who wished to remain anonymous told KSL many nearby are content with Silver Eagle's response, saying the company has "bent over backwards."
Wednesday's statement from the company said, "The refinery is now focused on continuing to work with residents whose property was affected" and "following the same protocol requirements to start up the other refining units in the future."
A representative of the Silver Eagle Refinery said the company wasn't able to accommodate an interview with KSL in time for this story.
Silver Eagle originally was hoping to start up operation on Tuesday, but elected to put the plans on hold until the Utah Labor Commission's Division of Boilers & Elevators posted its activated operating permits online.
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
