Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of a fire at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo on Tuesday night.
The fire broke out around 10:30 p.m. at or near a malfunctioning pump, said Breck Slover, battalion chief with the El Segundo Fire Department. There was no explosion, but loud bangs from electrical transformers blowing up were heard at the plant. The cause of the pump malfunction is unknown, Slover said.
The fire sent flames nearly 40 feet skyward and burned for about an hour and 20 minutes.
The blaze could have have been much worse, Slover said. Emergency personnel shut down the fuel supply to the pump and hosed down some nearby petroleum tanks to prevent them from failing.
“If the tanks failed, it would have been a three- or four-day event,” Slover said.
No one was injured, Slover said. It’s not clear how much property damage the fire caused.
El Segundo officials asked residents to shelter in place and close their windows to minimize the effects of drifting smoke. However, wind conditions were relatively calm Tuesday night, Slover said.
Neighbors often complain that the refinery, the largest of its kind on the West Coast, emits offensive odors and has caused health problems, but the fire department hasn’t received any formal complaints from residents about Tuesday’s fire, Slover said.
Slover said it’s been at least five years since there was a significant fire at the refinery. The fire department is called to the plant several times a year, he said.
“Anytime something happens over there, it’s got the potential to be really bad,” Slover said.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District is also investigating any potential air quality violations, said spokesman Sam Atwood. A district inspector examined the plant Tuesday night after the fire, Atwood said.
The district has cited the plant for several air quality violations over the years, Atwood said. Most recently, it issued three notices of violation in June after tests showed that excessive organic compounds were leaking from various parts of the refinery, Atwood said. A follow-up inspection showed that the leaks had been fixed.
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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on a refinery fire near Los Angeles (all times local):
12:10 a.m.
Chevron says a fire at one of its California refineries did not burn near any of the facility’s main process units.
Spokesman Braden Reddall says the blaze late Tuesday at the Chevron El Segundo Refinery was confined to a distribution manifold along a perimeter of the facility just south of Los Angeles. He says the cause is under investigation.
No injuries are reported from the fire that burned for about a half-hour and sent smoke into surrounding neighborhoods. The refinery is the largest on the West Coast.
Reddall said Wednesday that the blaze is not expected to affect Chevron’s ability to supply customers.
Patrick DeHaan, senior analyst with GasBuddy, says initial information indicates the blaze will not affect gas prices.
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10:40 a.m.
A petroleum industry analyst says a fire that erupted at the West Coast’s largest oil refinery is unlikely to have an effect on gas prices.
No injuries were reported in the blaze Tuesday at the Chevron El Segundo Refinery south of Los Angeles. Crews kept the fire from spreading to storage tanks and had the flames out within about a half-hour.
Chevron has not said what caused the fire or detailed the extent of the damage.
Fires at such refineries have had implications for gas prices. But Patrick DeHaan, senior analyst with Gas Buddy, said Wednesday that initial information indicates that will not be the case with this blaze.
DeHaan says the refinery was not running at full capacity because the facility had recently shuttered most operations for regular semi-annual preventative maintenance.