Fire at Chevron refinery in Richmond East Bay residents told to stay inside as thick smoke spews into sky from Chevron plant

Smoke from a Chevron Oil refinery fire fills the sky above Richmond Calif, Monday August 6, 2012. Photo taken from Treasure Island. Smoke from a Chevron Oil refinery fire fills the sky above Richmond Calif, Monday August 6, 2012. Photo taken from Treasure Island. Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 37 Caption Close Fire at Chevron refinery in Richmond 1 / 37 Back to Gallery

Thousands of East Bay residents were ordered to stay in their homes with the windows and doors closed Monday night after a series of explosions and fires tore through Chevron's Richmond refinery.

The explosions started about 6:15 p.m., and at least two large fires spewed thick, black smoke into the darkening sky.

The fire started at the refinery's No. 4 Crude Unit, Chevron officials said. Just before 6:30 p.m., an inspection crew discovered that there was a diesel leak in a line in the unit - and that the leak was growing.

Shortly after the crew evacuated the area, the diesel ignited, said Nigel Hearne, manager of the refinery.

All employees had been accounted for and there were no fatalities, but one refinery worker suffered burns to his wrist and was treated at the on-site clinic.

About five minutes after the explosions, sirens tore through the air, alerting residents to stay indoors to prevent breathing tainted air. Some people got in their cars and drove away from the smoke that spread throughout the neighborhoods east of the refinery.

"Everybody evacuated so fast people's car alarms were going off," said Sara Monares, 55, who lives a short distance from the refinery.

Health officials' main concern was fumes from crude oil and diesel fuel, but winds were carrying the smoke and pollutants skyward, said Maria Duazo, a hazardous materials specialist with the Contra Costa County Health Services Department.

A shelter-in-place warning was issued for Richmond, North Richmond and San Pablo and remained in effect late Monday. An advisory for those with lung conditions or a sensitivity to smoke to stay indoors was expanded to all of Contra Costa County. Residents as far away as the Oakland hills were being warned by police about smoke heading that way.

Air samples taken

As the smoke stretched out over the El Cerrito hills, Contra Costa County hazardous materials units rolled through the neighborhoods, taking air samples.

Trisha Asuncion, hazardous materials specialist with Contra Costa County, said that no hazardous compounds had been detected in the air, but that monitoring would continue.

Kaiser's Richmond Medical Center said several dozen people came to the emergency room Monday night complaining of shortness of breath, but none was seriously ill.

Julius Bailey, 21, who lives on Barrett Avenue in Richmond, blocks away from the refinery, was at the hospital wearing a face mask. He said his throat had started burning and his eyes itching. After seeing a doctor, he said, "They told me I'm not going to die, but it sure feels pretty serious."

BART closed the Richmond, El Cerrito del Norte and El Cerrito Plaza stations at about 7 p.m., and shut down service between Richmond and El Cerrito and Richmond and North Berkeley about 30 minutes later. Only the Richmond Station remained closed late Monday.

Toll takers on the westbound Richmond-San Rafael Bridge were told to take shelter because of the fire, said Officer Ralph Caggiano, a California Highway Patrol spokesman. He said he wasn't sure whether cash-paying drivers would get a free trip, but drivers with FasTrak were still being charged tolls.

Previous fires

The Chevron Richmond refinery was founded more than a century ago and is Northern California's largest, capable of processing more than 242,000 barrels of oil each day. It is the third-largest refinery in the state. A prolonged closure could push up gasoline prices, which are already rising nationwide because of a rally in the market for crude oil.

The refinery has suffered fires before. In January of 2007, the seal on a pump in a crude unit failed, triggering a fire that lasted almost 10 hours.

David Rorai, 60, was working as a welder for Chevron about a decade ago when another explosion injured several workers.

"On that last one, we ran like hell," he said, as he stood watching the smoke from Monday night's fires. "We got in our cars and left. I feel for those guys in there right now." Rorai said danger is just a fact of the job when you work around explosive gases.

"You got to figure if the guy next to you didn't clear his line right or wasn't being careful, that's it for you," he said. "Comes with the job."

Chevron has for years wanted to overhaul and upgrade the facility. But many Richmond residents and environmentalists have objected, saying the project would create more air pollution in a community that already has too much. Although Richmond's City Council approved the renovation project in 2008, a judge halted construction work the next year, ruling that Chevron had not answered key questions in the project's environmental impact report.

Monday night, along a fence line on Barrett Avenue in Richmond, a dozen children and teenagers stood fixated, covering their mouths with their shirts as they watched the smoke pour into the sky. They said they had never seen anything like this in their lives.

"When I heard the booms, I was scared and hid because I thought it was grenades," said Dai'lonie Fuller, 12. "I'm just here to get a look, and then I'm staying inside."

Under the spreading plume of smoke sat the Christian Home Missionary Church, about a block from the fence. While one singer coughed, the dozen-woman choir sang, despite evacuation orders, their urgent gospel music filling the empty street outside.

"We've got a funeral to sing at tomorrow, and that doesn't wait," said Laura Young, 65. "We're trying to do what we've got to do."

The song they were singing was "God Will Take Care of You."

The fire dwindled down to a few thin twists of smoke by about 8:30 p.m., but flames still flickered beyond what observers could see from the perimeter. Chevron officials said crews were fighting the blaze with nitrogen and steam to keep it cool, but had no estimate as to when it would be extinguished.

By 8:45 p.m., the winds shifted to the west, blowing the smoke away from the city and into the bay, said Greg Lawler, a health services hazardous materials specialist for Contra Costa County.

Ken Workman, 47, stood on Macdonald Avenue, peeking through the fence at the fire and shaking his head. He has lived a couple of blocks away since 1987 and said he thinks the refinery doesn't do enough to protect local residents.

"The wind never blows that smoke to Marin County, now does it?" he said. "They made sure of that. I think it's intentional that they don't protect us."