Incident Report

Subject:                        Chevron Fire - Containted

Date of Email reporting Incident:   Fri 17/08/2007

Report Detail:

 An oil fire at Chevron's largest U.S. refinery was mostly contained about two hours after it started, a company official said Thursday. But a large plume of black smoke could still be seen over the Mississippi coast. "It's essentially under control at this point," Chevron spokesman Steve Renfroe told the Associated Press shortly after 4 p.m. CDT. "There's no reports of injuries and everyone's accounted for. There was never any danger to the community and we'll investigate."

Jackson County government spokesman Ken Flanagan said there were two minor injuries. Flanagan said he was relaying information provided by company officials. He said one of the injuries was a person suffering from heat exhaustion at the plant. The other was a person who had an anxiety attack in a nearby neighborhood. The facility is one of the top 10 petroleum refineries in the United States and has been operating on the Mississippi coast since 1963, according to the company's Web site.

The fire started about 2:15 p.m. CDT. About 4 p.m., a huge billow of black smoke was visible over the Gulf of Mexico. The fire "started at Crude Processing Unit 2, about middle of plant," Flanagan said. All nonessential employees were evacuated from the plant. Chevron's own fire crews were fighting the blaze, and about 20 firefighters from Pascagoula and Jackson County were standing by, said Pascagoula Fire Department Capt. Terry Turgeau.

"It looks pretty big," Turgeau said. "Just looking from the station it looks pretty large."

Smoke was visible for several miles and flames were reported as high as tree tops shortly after the fire broke out. Robbie Wilbur, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, said the agency had an emergency response team on the scene.
"They're performing ambient air monitoring and we just want to make sure there is no impact for the citizens of the area," Wilbur said. "We'll continue working with Chevron to make sure the air is safe."

The plant processes 330,000 barrels of crude oil a day, primarily making gasoline, jet fuel and diesel, according to the Web site. Other products made there include paraxylene, which is used by the textile and plastics industry, and benzene and ethylbenzene, both used automobile tires, sporting goods, nylon and pharmaceuticals, the Web site said.
The plant employs 1,350 people.