Witness:    Charlie W. Brown.         
Accident:   WHIFFUM PIER FIRE AND EXPLOSION     
Accident Location:    WHIFFUM PIER     
Accident date:    February 12, 2007     
Taken by: C. QUESTER      PSD Badge     007    , on     February 13, 2007  

1  My name is CHARLIE W. BROWN. I am a longshoreman out of Local 31.
2   On Thursday morning, I was at this shape-up and got called to go out to
3   Whiffum pier and load a dry cargo freighter. So I went over to the pier
4   and went to the pier Super's office, and we talked about our jobs for that day.
5   A little later, I was in the doorway of this here lean-to after I had taken the chill
6   off my face, and I seen this truck headed down the pier toward us. He stopped
7   and started backing up to the big gas tank. All of a sudden as he was backing
8   up, I seen this white smoke come out from under the tank and start
9   rolling toward me. All of a sudden there was this big fire and explosion that
10  knocked me on my can. I got up and helped some of the guys try to put out
11  the fire. All of a sudden, there was this giant explosion that lit everything
12  up in a bright orange color. It looked like the sky was burning. Somebody
13  came and helped me get up, and walked me past the firemen who were
14  hurt. We got into a car and they took me to the hospital. My clothes were
15  stuck to me. That's all I remember.