Anyone who lives in the Piedmont Triad is familiar with Colonial Pipeline's tank farm hard by I-40 in Greensboro.  I drive by the tanks at least twice a day during my commute to and from the office so I've had ample occasion to wonder what would happen if one caught fire.  We found out this weekend when one of them was struck by lightning and went up like a roman candle, and from what I've seen the Greensboro Fire Department did a stellar job containing the blaze.

Something interesting I learned while monitoring WXII's Kenny Beck's coverage via Twitter: one tank contains 200,000 gallons of oil, which helps put the Gulf Oil spill in perspective. If the current low end of the estimate of 42 million gallons is correct then that would be like taking 210 of those tanks and dumping them in the Gulf.