http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001937336_webpipeline24 .html =20 RENTON - Officials are asking airlines not to refuel their planes at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, after a weekend explosion shut down the 400-mile pipeline system that delivers the airport's jet fuel.=20 "We've asked the airlines to, when possible, fly in here with enough fuel on board to get to their next destination," airport spokesman Bob Parker said today. "We think we have enough fuel on site to get us through late afternoon or early evening on Wednesday."=20 Workers at Olympic Pipe Line Co.'s pumping station in the south Seattle suburb of Renton heard an explosion Sunday morning and saw 20-foot flames leaping from a small stainless-steel test line that runs off the main pipeline. The fire was put out in about three hours, and two leaks were contained later in the day.=20 No one was injured, though three firefighters were checked at a hospital after fuel splashed on them.=20 Between 3,300 and 10,000 gallons of fuel leaked from the three-quarter-inch line, with much of it burning, Olympic President Bobby Talley said today. The cause of the explosion was under investigation.=20 Olympic's pipeline system moves 12 million gallons of gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel through Western Washington every day - from refineries at Cherry Point, north of Bellingham, and March Point, near Anacortes, to as far south as Portland, Ore. A rupture of the main pipeline in 1999 killed three people.=20 As a precaution, company officials shut down the entire system following Sunday's explosion. Talley said today that his best estimate was that it would remain shut down for days.=20 "This is an isolated incident. ... It's not an integrity issue with the main line," Talley said. "We're taking every safety precaution necessary to ensure we understand what the problem is."=20 While major fuel delivery spots in Portland and at Seattle's Harbor Island can be reached by barge or truck, the primary way to deliver fuel to Sea-Tac is through the pipeline, Parker said. The airport had 2.9 million gallons on hand and typically uses 1.2 million gallons per day.=20 The airport won't have to close if Olympic takes longer than Wednesday to restart the pipeline, but airlines will have to be certain that their planes arrive with enough fuel to reach their next destinations, Parker said.=20 Environmental officials were trying to determine how much fuel seeped into the ground, but Talley said a layer of clay underneath the facility should help contain the spill.=20 Carl Andersen, with the state Ecology Department, said clean up workers expected to be able to keep any fuel from reaching nearby Spring Brook Creek, which has a threatened population of chinook salmon.=20 Olympic was losing $10,000 in business every hour the pipeline was shut down, Talley said.=20 Three people died in June 1999 when a section of the main Olympic pipeline ruptured in Bellingham, releasing nearly 237,000 gallons of gasoline that exploded into a fireball along Whatcom Creek.=20 Shell Oil Co., one of the pipeline owners, agreed to pay $250,000 of a $3 million fine proposed by the U.S. Office of Pipeline Safety and the rest of the fine is being negotiated with Olympic. A wrongful death suit filed by two families was settled for $75 million. Last year Olympic filed for reorganization in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding.=20 =20