EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (KABC) — Crews have managed to gain control of a massive fire that erupted at a Chevron oil refinery in El Segundo, which sent up large flames and plumes of smoke into the air.
The fire broke out around 9 p.m. Thursday and could be seen for miles across the South Bay. Officials said there was no threat to the public.
"All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries," Allison Cook, a Chevron spokesperson, said in a statement.
The refinery is the largest oil-producing site on the West Coast, and it isn't the first explosion it has seen.
It was not immediately clear what caused Thursday's blaze.
Crews on Friday managed to gain control of a massive fire at Chevron's El Segundo refinery, and now officials will work to determine what caused it.
Although the fire was mostly contained by around 7 a.m., fire crews remained on scene to full extinguish the flames, which originated at a process unit at the southeast corner of the refinery.
A Chevron spokesperson told Eyewitness News that the fire was isolated to that area of the site.
When asked whether the incident will impact gas prices, the spokesperson said it was still too early to determine that.
When a large fire broke out at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo, a bright orange glow from the flames could be seen across a large portion of Southern California.
Eyewitness News spoke exclusively with a man who had an up-close experience. He was working on site when it erupted and described what it was like.
"Next thing I know, I hear like a big 'WHOOOSH'… it was like wind, but like pressurized wind," he said. "Next thing I know, bro, I see everything in front of me just light up and I see shadows of towers and pieces of equipment and I'm just like 'Oh my god. It's a fire'."
That's when he started running.
"Next thing I know, on my left side, the flare goes off… it's just a big old fire torch, you know what I mean? And I just feel the heat coming on the left side of my face, and I'm just like 'Oh man i got to keep running, I'm already out of breath'."
Chevron officials said everyone was accounted for and no injuries were reported.
There have been at least four other fires at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo since 2016.
The last one happened back in 2022. During that incident, firefighters kept the fire confined to the refinery and nobody was hurt.
In 2018, a power failure triggered a burn-off at the facility. Black smoke could be seen for miles but there was never a threat to the public.
A year before that in 2017, a fire broke out near the storage tanks at the refinery. That was was put out in about an hour without any injuries.
And in 2016, a fire burned several storage containers at the refinery.
As Eyewitness News continues coverage of the massive fire at Chevron's refinery in El Segundo, we got a look from AIR7 several hours after it erupted.
The large flames created an almost apocalyptic scene when it first started Thursday night. By Friday morning, the fire was still burning but crews appeared to have contained it to one area of the refinery site.