Damage from Port Manatee fire the responsibility of storage tank owner, director says

Palm oil fueled a storage tank fire at Port Manatee over the weekend, Carlos Buqueras, the port’s executive director, said Tuesday.

There was no biohazard, Buqueras said in response to a question from Betsy Benac, a Manatee County Port Authority member.

Five fire districts spent several hours fighting the fire in a tank with a 180,000-barrel capacity.

At the time of the fire, the tank contained about 60,000 barrels of fuel. Firefighters used about 3,000 gallons of foam to put out the fire.

The fire was reported around 7:45 p.m. Sunday at 804 N. Dock St., and extinguished about 1:30 a.m. Monday, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.

The tank is the property of TransMontaigne Partners L.P., an oil pipeline and terminal company.

“This is covered by the vendor and their insurance?” authority chair Vanessa Baugh asked.

The tank is under the complete control and responsibility of TransMontaigne, which is fully insured to cover the loss, Buqueras said.

“No other tanks were affected. There are over 100 tanker trucks every day at the port. The fuel started flowing within moments of the fire marshal giving the go-ahead,” Buqueras said.

Among fire departments that assisted in putting out the blaze were North Manatee Fire Rescue, Southern Manatee Fire Rescue, East Manatee Fire Rescue, City of Bradenton Fire Department and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

The state will prepare a report on the fire, Buqueras said.

Investigators have not released a report on what caused the fire.

“The tank’s actual structural integrity gave way and collapsed inward the way it was supposed to and put a tear in the metal roof,” the Herald previously reported Michael Rampino, chief of the North River Fire District, as saying.

“It’s a very old tank but it did what it was designed to do,” Rampino said.

The tear in the roof allowed firefighters to smother the fire with a foam blanket.

TransMontaigne Partners L.P. has a capacity of 1.5 million barrels at Port Manatee, the Herald has previously reported.

This story was originally published July 24, 2018 at 3:37 PM.