VAN, Texas (AP) — Authorities say two people are injured, one critically, after an oil storage tank exploded at a facility in East Texas.
Van Zandt County Emergency Management Coordinator Chuck Allen says firefighters began battling the blaze around 3 a.m. Tuesday at the oil storage facility in Van, about 75 miles east of Dallas.
Allen says the two people injured were smoking on top of a storage tank when it exploded. The flames then spread to other tanks.
Both victims are 24 years old. Allen says one is on life support. Both were taken to a Dallas hospital for treatment of their burns.
Three of the facility's six oil storage tanks were destroyed and three others damaged. The blaze was extinguished shortly after 9:30 a.m.
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