Officials with Dominion Energy are conducting an investigation so that a repeat of a fire at one of the company’s storage tanks in the Ohio Valley over Memorial Day weekend can be prevented.
The fire was reported at the site of a natural gas condensate tank in the unincorporated community of Ben’s Run near Friendly in the afternoon hours of May 25.
Several Tyler County fire departments and industrial firefighting crews were called to the scene. Gov. Jim Justice ordered state resources to the scene to assist after he was informed of the situation by Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Austin Caperton.
The fire wasn’t extinguished until about 5 a.m. the following day.
Lora D. Lipscomb, public information officer for the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DSHEM), said Dominion is investigating the fire, which is believed to have been caused by a lightning strike because thunderstorms were moving through the area at the time.
“They don’t know for sure,” she said. “No one saw anything until the smoke started coming off and someone at a factory adjacent saw the smoke from the storage tank and called the fire departments.”