Fire at chevron refinery

[meshaliuknits]

The chevron refinery in town is on fire. I'm across the city from it but we can see the smoke & hear the shelter in place alarms.

Hope they get it out soon.

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[meshaliuknits]

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[NitaX]

Oh my. Keep us posted Mesh.

[copzgirl1171]

That's awful. I hope it is put out quickly.

[meshaliuknits]

I wanna say this refinery had a fire back in October. At least this time every one recognizes the shelter in place alarm. Was nit the case last time.

They're saying there were several explosions. I hope no one was hurt. Also? Twitter was totally my first source of info.

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[meshaliuknits]

Twitter tells me you can see the smoke from the city.

Also, even I know the one fire that looks like a torch is an intentional flare to relieve pressure. Because I was paying attention last time.

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[sonrisa]

The black smoke cloud rising from there is HUGE. I was just driving down 101 and saw it.

[ESF]

I just saw this on the news. My landlord's partner works there. Hopefully he's OK.

[meshaliuknits]

The smoke plume looks like its getting smaller from here. And we just realized we'd be fucked if we had to shelter in place.

H got bored & switched from the news to Power Puff Girls. So I'm judging everything from the window & Twitter.

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[meshaliuknits]

Word is the shelter in place was extended to El Cerrito & North Oakland, which is me.

Stupid broken flue.

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[sonrisa]

Stay safe.

[meshaliuknits]

The fire is almost out, but the smell is worse. Can smell it here now. Fire is being called a 'level 3' which means jack to me, but its supposed to be high/bad.

Oh! And all employees are accounted for. One person has a minor burn. Which is good.

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[wannabe]

be safe!

[schrodinger]

I work in refining and have been through two major fires. They are really scary and you realize just how little control over the process there can be. I'm glad to hear everyone's accounted for at Chevron and the fire is getting under control. Hopefully the all-clear sounds soon.

[meshaliuknits]

So word is the fire broke out due to a diesel leak. The leak came into contact with hot machinery or something & thats what caused the fire to start. Crews saw the leak & evacuated the area just prior to everything going up. Won't know what caused the leak until the fire is out.

I feel terrible for the toll workers & refinery folks who are all sheltering in place at work instead of going home.

Hey schrodinger, do you know what they mean when they call it a 'level 3 incident'? The news keeps repeating it but isn't defining it.

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[meshaliuknits]

Yay! The fire is contained & the shelter in place has been lifted. I can go to work in the morning.

Yay?

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[sonrisa]

that is good news. I'm going to head to bed and assume the wind doesn't shift.

[overture]

Is that the one that's right next to 80?

[ringstrue]

omg mesh that was scary! I just saw news of it this morning. Hope your house isn't too smoke-smelly.

[schrodinger]

Aug 7, 2012 0:20:00 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

So word is the fire broke out due to a diesel leak. The leak came into contact with hot machinery or something & thats what caused the fire to start. Crews saw the leak & evacuated the area just prior to everything going up. Won't know what caused the leak until the fire is out.

I feel terrible for the toll workers & refinery folks who are all sheltering in place at work instead of going home.

Hey schrodinger, do you know what they mean when they call it a 'level 3 incident'? The news keeps repeating it but isn't defining it.

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Every oil company has a different policy on what they call the severity of an incident. The general scale is like this:

Level 1: Isolated to the affected processing unit. Handled at the level of unit operations. Unit evacuation.
Level 2: Refinery is affected up to the fence-line. Handled at the level of refinery fire team. Refinery-wide evacuation.
Level 3: Local community affected. Calls placed to external agencies for aid. Shelter in place.
Level 4+: Local community severely impacted. Request for aid from multiple agencies. Community evacuation requested. (This would be for a major incident like an HF acid release, Cl gas release, etc.)

Like I said, every refinery is different, but the levels usually refer to how far into the community the impact spreads. I'm glad to hear that it was due to air quality and not hazardous material release.

[pixy0stix]

What is "shelter in place"?

[ringstrue]

Aug 7, 2012 9:10:28 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

What is "shelter in place"?

its when its more dangerous to run outside to get away from something than to just stay put inside in a safe room. So I'm guessing for them, since its a fire, you think "zomgs get outside!" but because there was danger of explosions it was better to stay in the safe room areas inside for a bit.

[schrodinger]

Aug 7, 2012 9:10:28 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

What is "shelter in place"?

When the hazards are unknown, but you are likely to be safer inside where the air quality/exposure risks are lower. And car/truck engines have been known to ignite fires when a flammable gas is released, so driving can be a hazard until people figure out WTF is going on.

[pixy0stix]

Huh. I would have been burned to a crisp. I've never heard that before.

[pamela]

Aug 7, 2012 9:10:28 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

What is "shelter in place"?

Shelter in place in our area means shut off A/C, close all windows/fresh air intake and stay put because what is in the air outside isn't good to breathe and you are more at risk going outside trying to drive away than staying inside wherever you are. We live in a dense chemical plant area so we have to do it too frequently for my liking.

[meshaliuknits]

Aug 7, 2012 1:02:36 GMT -5 overture said:

Is that the one that's right next to 80?

The Chevron refinery is right off of 580 in Richmond. I think the ConocoPhillips or whatever the F they are now is near 80 in Rodeo.

[meshaliuknits]

Aug 7, 2012 9:07:53 GMT -5 schrodinger said:

Every oil company has a different policy on what they call the severity of an incident. The general scale is like this:

Level 1: Isolated to the affected processing unit. Handled at the level of unit operations. Unit evacuation.
Level 2: Refinery is affected up to the fence-line. Handled at the level of refinery fire team. Refinery-wide evacuation.
Level 3: Local community affected. Calls placed to external agencies for aid. Shelter in place.
Level 4+: Local community severely impacted. Request for aid from multiple agencies. Community evacuation requested. (This would be for a major incident like an HF acid release, Cl gas release, etc.)

Like I said, every refinery is different, but the levels usually refer to how far into the community the impact spreads. I'm glad to hear that it was due to air quality and not hazardous material release.

Thank you! 3 sounds like exactly what went down last night. I hate when the news uses phrases that sound bad but then never bother to define them.

[pamela]

Aug 7, 2012 9:38:25 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

I hate when the news uses phrases that sound bad but then never bother to define them.

They most likely heard the term at a media briefing and didn't bother to ask what it meant so the reporter didn't know what it meant either. I agree that using terms like that without any context is bad and sloppy reporting. Even worse when they start trying to guess at the definitions without verifying it.