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Published on: 3/21/2008
Last Visited: 3/21/2008
Anderson County Emergency Management Agency Director Steve Payne told The Oak Ridger late Thursday afternoon that the flames were one-third to a half times smaller than they were Wednesday.
Nevertheless, Payne said the fire remains "intense" with flames shooting up as much as 70 feet high.
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Using bulldozers and front-end loaders to clear trees and brush from the hillside around the burning oil rig, Payne said workers were improving access to it on Thursday.
The crews are also building one or two ponds and filling them up with water, he said.
They will use 3,000 gallon-a-minute pumps to draw water from those ponds, hoping to smother the fire before capping the oil well.
Payne said a fire investigator was on the scene to help determine the cause of the explosion.He added that crews were not sure how long it might take to put out the fire.
Be that as it may, Payne told The Oak Ridger on Thursday that "we're going to allow a certain number of (residents) to go home after 4 p.m. today."
Meanwhile, fire victim Jonathan Vann, a 21-year-old Morgan County man, apparently remains in critical condition, Payne said.