Second Fire In Under 2 Months Burns Through Phillips 66 Refinery In Carson
CARSON (CBSLA) — Thick black smoke once again billowed from the Phillipps 66 refinery in Carson Thursday evening as the refinery's second fire in under two months burned.
Los Angeles County Fire responded to plumes of smoke at the 16000 block of Sepulveda Boulevard near Alameda Street around 5 p.m.
According to L.A. County Fire, the fire began when a pump with oil on it caught on fire.
The refinery's own fire crew began to attempt to put out the flames as L.A. County Fire was on their way.
"They have kept it isolated to one little area inside the refinery I don't know if that will have any other impact with the refinery but at this time and I haven't been given any other information in the refinery still operating as normal," said L.A. County Fire Inspector Sky Cornell.
No injuries were reported and crews were able to put the fire out within a couple of hours.
"No impact at all reported on the air quality as far as all of the monitoring that we have done continuously throughout the event and continue to do. We'll to that until the very end," said Cornell.
This is the second fire at the facility in the past two months. A massive fire raged through the refinery on March 15.
With gas prices at a five-year high, drivers have a good reason to be worried about prices climbing again.
One expert told CBSLA that because this refinery has had issues in the recent past, people shouldn't see any major impact.
Patrick Dehaan of Gas Buddy said, "This is not necessarily the shock of a new refinery having a new major issue. This is something that energy markets have already grappled with and it will not come as a major surprise out of left field."
Phillips 66 released a statement Thursday evening saying, "At approximately 4:51 p.m. PDT, today, May 2, 2017, the Phillips 66 Carson Refinery Emergency Response Team responded to a residual pump fire at the refinery. Responders from Los Angeles County were staged as a precaution, but not utilized. There were no injuries. Refinery personnel are monitoring the air quality within the community and refinery. All data indicate there has been no off-site impact. Appropriate regulatory agency notifications including the South Coast Air Quality Management District have been made."
According to authorities, the fire was reportedly was contained to a 20-foot by 20-foot area, causing only minor damage.