AP and staff reports

MONTEREY, La. — Six oil storage tanks at an isolated facility near Monterey burned Tuesday evening following an explosion at one of the tanks, state police said.

No one was injured and no evacuations were ordered because no homes are located near the facility, which is located off Bee Brake Road in the middle of farmland, Trooper Steve Childers said.

One of six tanks owned by Sea Gull Operating Co. exploded at about 4 p.m. Within two hours, the fire spread the rest of site’s five oil tanks, each of which contained more than 210 gallons of crude oil.

One was still on fire at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, and hazardous material crews were on the scene to control the blaze.

&uot;All you can do is set back and let it burn itself out&uot; until hazmat crews arrive, said Chief Nolen Cothren of Concordia Fire District No. 2, which dispatched firefighters to the scene.

The cause of the explosion had not yet been determined, Childers said Tuesday night.

But Cothren said there had been grass fires in the area, and one of them might have caused the explosion.

Sea Gull Superintendent Joe Pugh said all of the six tanks burned to some extent. No one was at the site at the time of the explosion, he said.