Six of the worst

The explosion and fire at the NuStar storage facility in Crockett on Tuesday was the first major incident in recent memory at a fuel storage facility in the area. All of the other major incidents have occurred at area refineries. Here are six, two of which were deadly: August 6, 2012: A series of explosions and fires tore through Chevron's Richmond refinery. While a black cloud wafted over the Bay Area during the fire at the Chevron oil refinery, more than 1,700 people ended up in emergency rooms. February 23, 1999: An explosion sent a fireball ripping through a tower at Tosco's refinery near Martinez, killing 4 and severely injuring another.

January 21, 1997: A fiery explosion rocked the Tosco Refinery Co. near Martinez, killing one man and injuring 24 others. The reverberations from the blast were felt 20 miles away, with smoke and flames visible from nearby freeways.

June 15, 1995: A 4.2 million-gallon naphtha tank at the Unocal San Francisco refinery in Rodeo caught fire, sending clouds of black smoke over Interstate 80 that were visible at least 15 miles away. A community alert network urged residents in Tormey and Crockett to stay indoors to avoid the smoke.

September 4, 1989: Explosions that felt like major earthquakes rocked the Shell Oil refinery in Martinez, touching off an inferno that spewed a giant plume of smoke stretching for miles over the region. At least two workers were injured in the fire, which was confined to the plant area on the northeast side of town.

April 9, 1989: A lunchtime explosion at the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond touched off a crude-oil fire that injured eight people and spewed a huge cloud of black smoke across the East Bay. The fire, which burned into the night, started when an as yet unexplained hydrogen leak ignited gasoline and jet fuel.