Massive fire erupts at Chevron refinery just outside Los Angeles; flames visible for miles

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Firefighters were still pouring water Friday morning onto a fire that broke out the night before at a Chevron oil refinery just outside Los Angeles, sending towering flames into the air that were visible for miles. Officials in El Segundo, California, urged people to stay indoors. By early Friday, the fire was contained and there was no threat to public safety, the city said in a statement. No evacuations had been ordered. "There is still an active fire and road closures remain in place," it said. Residents near the Chevron El Segundo Refinery described feeling a rumble and then seeing the flames. "Pretty much the whole sky was orange," said Sam Daugherty, who told KABC-TV he lives 10 blocks away and began packing a bag in a panic. There were no injuries at the refinery and all personnel were accounted for, the company said in a statement late Thursday, adding that a monitoring system indicated the fire did not move beyond the facility's fence line. The statement did not say what caused the fire. The El Segundo police and fire departments did not immediately comment on the fire, which appeared to have erupted suddenly. LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell told KCAL-TV fire crews had contained the blaze to one section of the refinery. California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said it was monitoring the situation and coordinating with state and local authorities to protect the surrounding community. El Segundo is a beachside city located about a mile (1.6 kilometers) south of Los Angeles International Airport. LA Mayor Karen Bass wrote in a post on X that there was no known impact to the airport. "LAFD stands at the ready to assist with any mutual aid request," she said. A shelter-in-place order for nearby Manhattan Beach south of El Segundo was lifted Friday. No immediate air pollution problems were detected. An air quality index map Friday showed good levels for the Los Angeles area, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The refinery covers roughly 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers) and has more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) of pipelines, according to the company's website. The refinery, which has been in operation since 1911, can refine up to 290,000 barrels of crude oil a day, including gasoline, jet and diesel fuels, according to the company's website. There have been several fires at the refinery in the last decade, the latest in 2022. A fire in 2017 threatened storage tanks and sent huge flames into the sky before crews quickly smothered it. It did not burn near any of the facility's main processing units, Chevron said. Chevron was fined nearly $1 million by the state of California for a major fire in 2012 at a refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area. Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.