Fire Erupts at Marathon Refinery in California; No Injuries

A portion of Marathon Petroleum Corp’s 363,000 barrel-per-day Carson refinery in California has been shut following a fire, the company said on Wednesday. The fire, which began on Tuesday, has been contained and is under control, Marathon said in a statement, noting that no injuries were reported. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department tweeted earlier on Wednesday that the refinery perimeter has been secured and that it did not anticipate the need to evacuate area residents.

“An explosion preceded fire in a cooling tower at the Marathon Refinery,” the department tweeted. “Marathon personnel (are) keeping flames in check via fixed ground monitors while they work to depressurize the system. Los Angeles County Fire Department is assisting.”

In a filing with the state pollution regulator, the refinery reported an “electrical/mechanical malfunction.”

(Reporting by Asha Sistla, Nakul Iyer and Shreyansi Singh in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Anjishnu Mondal; editing by Jason Neely, Louise Heavens and Richard Chang)