BREAKING: Large Explosion and Fire at Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance, California - Ash Falling

Early reports coming in over twitter. Many indications of a very large explosion felt miles away. Many residents are reporting a strange ash falling all over the area. KTLA is also reporting a large "out of control" fire burning at the refinery. The refinery employs over 600 people, as reported by local media; no early indications of injuries.




Students are being told to shelter in school.

abc7.com...

Lot's of Twitter reports of ash falling and that the explosion felt like an earthquake.




Firefighters are on the scene.


This opening post will be updated as more information becomes available.

Well, there goes the "low" fuel prices we had enjoyed the last few weeks. Hopefully it was a pressure relief that blew and flamed up - something that won't be hard to fix and didn't harm anyone.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

I hope everyone is ok.

Fracking needed a boost in prices anyway.

Looks like gas shortages for California, or whoever this refinery supplies, you really never know.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Morning Skeptic,

I have a clear view of Torrance from my office. I'm near the 405 on the 21st floor. There is a very heavy marine layer blanketing all of Los Angeles this morning. But it's especially thick over by Torrance and is a slightly different color. The marine layer is in general grey but over by Torrance its got a sepia hue to it. Could be the smog but that hue isn't anywhere else that I can see. Looks like there are at least three helicopters circling but they could be birds and the marine layer is making it hard to distinguish.

Will update if the marine layer burns off enough to see anything more.

Is there any way you could get a picture for us?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Live feed from local news here: ktla.com...

Fire appears to be under control.

The damage looks extensive. Still no reports of injuries.

OMG, that sounds like the camp falcon explosion in iraq. It was the biggest arms holding area for us troops during the 2003 invasion. The whole thing exploded. But that was after heavy mortar fire from enemy combatants.

Hope no one is seriously injurred or killed, but by the looks of it, seems unlikely.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Sadly I switched my cellphone to a old flip phone to save money a few months back and it has no way to get pictures onto the internet. Plus I don' think much would come out in the photo the marine layer is really heavy this morning.

Oh well. If I could switch back, I would too!

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Wow that looks impressive! The pics look like total devastation

Silly question but would be interesting to see how this affects stocks and if it benefits any parties..

a reply to: Phatdamage

well someones going to get an insurance payout from the damage im sure of it but i bet money on it that they make more money in production then they ever could from insurance.

How many operational refineries are running in the US? Doesn't matter California has plenty.

There are 5 other refineries in California alone that are equal or larger in capacity. California has 17 total.

For the doom pron of oh no gas will go up angle, well that doesn't seem to have any basis in reality looking at the number of refineries.

Source

Will be interesting to know what caused it or if it is "too nuanced" for us normal citizens to understand. (reference specific to the liberal idealogical expression of the day)

Have they mentioned sabotage or terrorism?

originally posted by: xuenchen
Have they mentioned sabotage or terrorism?

It is well known the "Green" fundies want gas at the pump to be $10, but don't expect the liberal authorities at the Justice department to hunt for anything other than Christian fundies if foul play is suspected.

This popped to mind after reading the OP, since I just glanced at the financial section this morning.

www.thestreet.com...< br />

Not implying anything, just found it interesting.

We haven't had a new refinery built in the US since the '70s. It makes sense that these facilities are getting creaky old and dangerous. I hope no one was seriously hurt.

I hate even saying this because I hope everyone is okay...

But it irks me to no end that we will see the price of gas will rise just because of this. The news will report on it and The &$@!!# speculators are chomping at the bit to find any excuse to raise gas prices.

$##!$@&*@&$!!! ARRGGGHHH!

originally posted by: MisterSpock
This popped to mind after reading the OP, since I just glanced at the financial section this morning.

www.thestreet.com...< br />
Not implying anything, just found it interesting.

If you view not losing as gaining, then his firm got out in the nick of time. Perhaps reports of mismanagement or cutbacks and delays in maintenance or some such thing was gleaned from the numbers. Exxon did have a 15% loss while the industry was close to 50% losses according to the article. Something had to suffer to support those numbers.