Refinery flaring disrupts city
The event, caused by a power outage, leads Torrance to order people to stay inside.
A major flaring event at the former Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance triggered a shelter-in-place order for residents and slowed traffic along the 405 Freeway as an enormous column of smoke and f lames rose above the facility Tuesday.
The flaring was caused by a widespread power outage that left more than 100,000 South Bay residents without electrical service, according to the Torrance Police Department and Southern California Edison.
One refinery employee was taken to a hospital for evaluation, fire officials said. Fire crews remained at the scene Tuesday morning to help refinery employees bring their units back online.
At 5:45 a.m., Torrance Fire Department units were dispatched to the refinery, which evacuated all nonessential employees, the department said in a statement. As a precautionary measure, Crenshaw and Del Amo boulevards, which border the facility on 190th Street, were closed temporarily.
About 6:40 a.m., Torrance city officials warned residents to remain in their homes, shut doors and windows and turn off air conditioners. The shelter-in-place warning was lifted about 7:30 a.m.
Television images showed large flames erupting from tall flare stacks at the refinery, which was sold this summer by Exxon Mobil to PBF Energy in New Jersey and is now known as Torrance Refining Co.
Areas that lost power included Westmont, Hawthorne, Gardena, Torrance, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, according to Southern California Edison. The power outages began about 5:40 a.m., officials said. Most customers had power restored by about 7 a.m.
Paul Netter, a spokesman for Edison, said the cause of the outage had not been determined.
PBF Energy said all safety systems at the refinery had operated properly. It has begun restarting operations, a process that is expected to take several days and could include more flaring, the company and Torrance police said.
Fine-particle air pollution surged to elevated levels in a residential area near the refinery early Tuesday, according to readings collected by the Coalition for Clean Air, an environmental group.
A portable real-time airquality monitor deployed by the group detected an increase in levels of the lungdamaging pollutant PM2.5 to levels as high as 60 micrograms per cubic meter. Instantaneous readings above 60 are considered “high” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to the group.
Air pollution monitors at the facility showed a onehour increase in levels of fine particles, “but they did not exceed short-term unhealthy levels,” said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
By mid-morning, air quality officials had received 15 complaints, Atwood said.