Just after noon today, firefighters responded to reports of a fire at the Martinez Refining Company on Pacheco Blvd., in Martinez.
The Martinez Refining Company says their fire department quickly responded to smoldering material in out-of-service equipment.
They say there were no injuries, and operations were unaffected.
As of 2 p.m., ConFire, HazMat, other fire personnel, investigators and county health will remain on scene to continue their testing and investigations.
All I can say is when Shell owned this refinery, accidents/incidents were few and far between. Once it sold to this company … well, seems like they are in the news every week!
I was working there today. This was a heater that was down for maintenance. The inside insulation and packing caught fire because of what seems to be welding going on inside. This has nothing to do with the current owners safety culture.
You wouldn’t happen to be their PR guy would you? I’m glad you’re here to defend your employer. But who’s going to defend the raccoon when the next thing goes boom?
Just because they opposable thumbs and ski masks, you can’t blame them for everything.
Says the guy who never set foot in a petrochemical refinery in his life. Unless you know, don’t make ignorant comments.
I suspect a racoon is responsible
Shell was huge on safety. This company not so much. If the county had not allowed the epa to harass them all the time they would still be there. Chevron will probably be leaving Richmond soon because of the same reason. Is what it is
Shell would not still be there if the EPA had not harassed them. Shell as a corporation was getting out of the downstream refining business. They have sold all of their US refineries. They are concentrating on upstream exploration now. They sell the crew to brokers who intern, sell it to third-party refiners.
What a surprise… except it’s not.
Sounds like review of pre task plan and fire watch might be in order.
I worked at the Richmond refinery, I agree