Late-night flaring seen at Chevron in Richmond

A flareup occurred late Saturday at the Chevron refinery in Richmond but resulted in no evacuations, officials said.

The flaring, reported about 11 p.m., was visible for miles around the refinery, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District was notified of the incident.

The incident briefly caused an elevated quantity of sulfur dioxide, but the air quality wasn’t severely impacted, said Lisa Fasano, a spokeswoman for the district.

“We received no complaints, and we are continuing to investigate,” Fasano said. “Nothing is out of the ordinary on our monitors for (Saturday) night.”

The refinery is required to report any instance where it emits “higher than their permitted quantity of sulfur dioxide,” she added.

The flareup didn’t cause any off-site impact and there was no need for residents to shelter in place, Patty Canessa, a spokeswoman for the refinery, said in a statement.

“Flares are a highly regulated safety device monitored by the air district, used in refineries to safely burn excess gas. Our teams of experts are working hard to follow established guidelines to address this issue and we apologize for any concern this has caused our neighbors,” she said.

Chevron did not respond to an inquiry on what caused the flaring.