Flaring event sends massive plume of flame skyward in Martinez
Martinez #Martinez
MARTINEZ — Fire officials in Contra Costa County have canceled their response to reports of a fire or explosion at the Martinez Refining Company Friday after the company confirmed a flaring event.
The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District PIO Twitter account posted about the incident early Friday evening, saying that they had received reports of a possible explosion at the refinery company’s 3400 Pacheco Boulevard address in Martinez.
The company posted about the flaring on its Facebook page at around 5 p.m. Friday.
“We apologize for impacting some of our neighbors and thank our employees who are safely responding to resolve the equipment issue that is causing intermittent flaring,” the post read. “Flares are an essential part of a refinery’s integrated, engineered safety systems. Flares are designed to safely manage excess combustible gases, by burning them off efficiently and effectively.”
Chopper 5 got footage of a large plume of fire coming off of a flare stack at the refinery.
The Martinez Refining Company has two community inquiry phone numbers area residents can call: 925-313-3777 or 925-313-3601 during off work hours.
The flaring was happening at the same Martinez facility that released potentially hazardous materials over Thanksgiving without immediately sending out notifications about the incident, according to health officials.
Contra Costa Health (CCH) on Nov. 30th said that the Martinez Refining Company (MRC) accidentally released “spent catalyst” beginning around 9:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving and continuing into the early morning hours of Friday.
Despite being required by law to notify CCH and the county’s Community Warning System, health officials said they were not notified when the release took place. The department said their HazMat team learned about the release Saturday morning after community members near the refinery complained about white dust on surfaces.
“MRC’s failure to follow notification procedure cost us critical time we could have used to warn the public and reduce health risks in the community. It’s unacceptable,” Deputy Health Director Matt Kaufmann said in a statement.
In an amended 72-hour report regarding the incident, the refinery told health officials that it is investigating why they were not notified.
Samples by CCH taken near the refinery found “higher than normal” levels of heavy metals, including aluminum, barium, chromium, nickel, vanadium and zinc.
Officials said that they do not believe there is an immediate risk to the community and that the most significant health risks were short-term respiratory impacts from breathing in metals in the hours after the incident.