Fire at Vopak Terminal Bahamas - formerly BORCO.

(Freeport, Bahamas) - A small ground level fire occurred on a Pipe Line at the Vopak Terminal Bahamas site on  Monday morning shortly after 10:00am.

According to officials, first responders were able to contain and quickly extinguish the fire and there were no personal injuries or major damages to equipment.

As defined by the company, Vopak Terminal Bahamas, located in Freeport, is an independent storage terminal with a capacity of three-million cubic meters, or 20 million barrels, with the possibility of expansion up to five million cubic meters for the storage and handling of crude oil, fuel oil and clean petroleum products. Vopak and First Reserve Corporation had announced in April 2009, the completion of the acquisition of the Bahamas Oil Refining Company (BORCO) oil storage terminal in Freeport, Bahamas in the process renaming the company. 

The Ministry of The Environment has advised that agents of the Department of Environmental Health Services are conducting investigations into the indicent and are to issue a formal Press Release on the matter.

The company in an issued statement said "Our staff members followed the required protocol and the incident fortunately never presented any harm or threat to our nearby communities."

"We remain very sensitive to the safety and well-being of our employees and residents and [are] committed to alert and inform them should any emergency occur."