Fire Blazes At Chevron El Segundo Oil Refinery, 5 Years After Massive Explosion

A massive fire was ignited Tuesday night at Southern California's Chevron El Segundo oil refinery. The blaze was reportedly seen flaming a particular section of the refinery in the 300 block of El Segundo Boulevard, the city of El Segundo's fire alert said, around 9:13 p.m. ET

Fire crews arrived at the scene, responding to a two-alarm level from El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Los Angeles County fire departments, said Deena Lee, El Segundo's fire chief, Reuters reported.

The fire was put out just after 11:35 p.m. ET, Los Angeles Times reported. Footage showed crews spraying water on the huge flames in an unidentified part of the refinery. No injuries were reported in the incident, and city officials said the fire was isolated with "no offside impact or public threat."

The Chevron El Segundo Refinery supplies 20 percent of all motor vehicle fuels and 40 percent of the jet fuel consumed in Southern California, according to their website.

Chevron El Segundo's primary products include gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel. It's unclear as to which material was involved in the fire, Lee said.

A similar incident occurred at the refinery in October 2017. The scale of the fire was much larger than the recent one, and nearby residents were advised to close their windows after black smoke was rising from the raging plumes of fire on the west side of the refinery. The cause of the fire was an explosion at the facility, which threatened the storage tanks.

Fires at such facilities impact gas prices. While the recent incident's impact is yet to be ascertained, the blaze comes on the same day as California gasoline prices approached $1 a gallon on top of December NYMEX RBOB futures, Reuters reported.

The El Segundo oil refinery has been functional since 1911, in fact, the city was named after it, according to its website. Spread across 1,000 acres, it is capable of refining 290,000 barrels of crude oil daily and operates its own electricity, water, and steam treatment facilities.