A fire broke out in one of the facilities at Bazan oil refineries in Haifa as a result of a damaged pipe in the CCR system on Friday night, the Environment Protection Ministry reported in a statement.

Immediately after the fire broke out, the factory’s emergency team began working to extinguish the flames as fire and rescue forces were called to the scene before gaining control of the flames.

The plant has currently stopped supplying fuel to the facility, and the gases have been diverted to a torch fire, designed to deal with such incidents.Ministry staff, headed by Haifa district director Shlomo Katz, began conducting tests on site later in the evening.

It reported that the national air monitoring system deployed in Haifa Bay, near the Bazan complex, measures the concentrations of pollutants in the air in real time, and so far no deviation from the standards has been measured.

The ministry said it will examine the data in depth and the plant’s compliance with the emission permit, and will act in accordance with the findings.

Earlier this week, an executive committee established by the government recommended that Israel remove Bazan’s petrochemical plants in Haifa within 10 years raising further fears of a drop in the maintenance & safety budget.

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