Massive fire erupts at Chevron oil refinery on outskirts of Los Angeles
Firefighters working to contain the fire at Chevron’s refinery in El Segundo (Picture: Reuters)
A towering blaze visible for miles around broke out at a Chevron oil refinery on the outskirts of Los Angeles on Thursday night.
An explosion rocket the site in El Segundo at around 9.30pm local time, with residents reporting feeling a powerful shockwave.
Footage shows the skies in the area thick with smoke while huge flames rise high above the refinery’s tallest structures.
Firefighters responded and, over the course of the following hour, managed to contain the blaze to one corner of the site.
Chevron made the decision to carry out emergency flaring – the controlled burning of fuels to prevent more dangerous explosions or fires – during the incident, according to a report filed with the regulator later.
The refinery stores 12.5 million barrels of oil in around 150 major tanks and outputs around 290,000 barrels a day from the site, which is just south of Los Angeles airport.
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It took firefighters an hour to contain the fire to one part of the site (Picture: Reuters)
Chevron told regulators it carried out controlled burning at the site as a safety response measure (Picture: Reuters)
It’s thought there were no injuries or adverse effects to the nearby LAX airport (Picture: AP)
LA’s mayor, Karen Bass, said there is ‘no known impact to LAX’, and no flights appear to have been delayed or diverted.
A resident of Aviation Park, a few miles from the plant, told the LA Times he ‘thought we got nuked or something’ when the blast occurred.
He had been playing an adult football league game, which was cancelled due to the heavy smoke in the air.
It’s understood there were no injuries reported to emergency services, and no public evacuations were ordered.
California governor Gavin Newsom said on X: ‘Our office is coordinating with local and state agencies to … ensure public safety.’
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