HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Emergency Management Director Adam Weishaar said that the IFO Group will be on scene likely for months to continue work related to the explosions at the Haven gas plant.
He also told the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday that he believed the late-night evacuation of Haven when the additional risk of explosion to the city was detected late the evening of April 14 was warranted based on the information they knew at the time.
It was a surprise to them when it happened, as they had planned to stand down with the exception of Fire District 9 staying on scene until morning, when plant employees saw a problem with one of the liquid natural gas containers.
"There were ice crystals seen on the bottom of the vessel," Weishaar told the commission. "This indicated to employees that the materials inside the vessel were boiling."
Command staff were told that the vessel could explode at any time from 20 minutes to 72 hours and that the potential blast radius could be anywhere from 1.4 to 2 miles in diameter. It was with that information that the evacuations of Haven were ordered.
An expert from ONEOK was sent to the scene and requested drawings of the plant and the vessel of concern. That expert took a look at the issue and after consultation with IFO, it was decided that the fires that were burning were taking pressure off the plant and that the mitigation measures responders had in place would allow for the evacuation of Haven to end at 6 a.m.
Weishaar noted that being able to fly the gas plant site with a drone was critical and that he didn't know how they could have gotten the information they needed safely without it. Weishaar said IFO is continuing to mitigate both short term and long term impacts of the explosion. About 90 homes were evacuated. No one from the public has complained to emergency management as a result of the evacuation.
Weishaar praised all the county agencies that worked together to make the evacuation safe, from the Sheriff's Office to the fire districts to public works to mapping and more. He also praised the media for allowing staff to do its work during the event and for its patience with the way information was put out as the situation continued to change.
Weishaar particularly praised Gambino's for feeding the responders and ONEOK and CHS for providing subject matter experts to allow for better decision making. Weishaar said it took a team to keep the risk as low as they were able to and that the risk is as low as they can make it at this point given the volatility of the materials involved.