Incident Report

Subject:                     Pasadena Refinery Coker Fire, 2 Injured

Date of Email report:   Tue 13/12/2011

Report Detail:

PASADENA, Texas - A chemical refinery in Pasadena caught fire on Saturday night, alarming nearby residents who could hear explosions. According to a spokesman for the Pasadena Chemical Refining Plant, the fire broke out around 7 p.m. at its facility on Red Bluff at W. Richey. The company says the sludge at the bottom of a tank caught fire. While nearby residents said they heard at least two explosions, the company would only confirm there was a fire. A spokesman for the Pasadena Police Department says two people were injured with non-life threatening injuries. One of the injured was sent to the hospital. Many residents contacted FOX 26 over concerns that officials never contacted them about the fire or shelter-in-place. "We never heard a warning after the explosion," wrote one viewer. "I live across the freeway from the plant. Our windows shook, and I looked out the front door to see a huge fireball across the freeway and smelled something burning."

Officials say the incident was treated as a structure fire and not an explosion, and a shelter-in-place for residents north of Southmore was lifted after a brief amount of time.

ConocoPhillips Reports Coke Drum Fire At Illinois Refinery

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--ConocoPhillips (COP) said a process unit upset and coke drum fire occurred at its Wood River refinery in Roxana, Illinois, on Friday, according to a filing to Illinois state environmental regulators. The fire began at around 8:40 a.m. CST on Friday and was on-going at the time of the filing, about 30 minutes later. The on-site emergency response personnel were managing the fire, the government filing said.  The Wood River refinery is able to process up to 356,000 barrels of crude oil a day.