BY ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HAVEN, Kan. — The investigation is underway into the explosion and fire at the Tenawa Haven Midstream gas facility on Thursday. The explosion left two people injured and caused extensive damage to the plant. Fortunately, there were no fatalities.
“The first thing we did was make sure we had enough units to cover the fire,” Reno County Fire Administrator Travis Vogt said. “We quickly realized that as many as we’d called in we needed more.”
That meant calling out a fire unit from the refinery in McPherson and hazardous material units from Wichita to deal with the situation. Those crews spent the evening dealing with several small chemical fires that continued to burn. While local fire crews are used to dealing with wildfires and the like, this was something that required a different skillset. Vogt says everything went well.
“There’s always things that we’ll look back on,” Vogt said. “We’ll do a debrief next week or the next few coming weeks and figure out what we could have done better. It went well, but we’re always looking to improve.”
As bad as the fire was, Vogt said the outcome was good in that injuries were minor and no fatalities were reported.
The fire forced the evacuation of numerous rural residents near the property and several businesses along the west side of Haven. K-96 and roads around the plant were closed until around 6:30 p.m. and residents were allowed to return home at that time. Kent Road remained closed around the plant.
Haven USD 312 held rural students at its schools and allowed parents or guardians to pick them up during the day. Buses did run as normal, although routes were altered due to road closings in the area.
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