The fire that erupted Saturday afternoon at the Martinez Refining Co.’s facility in Contra Costa County is under control, company officials said early Sunday, though they warned that “residual smoke and flaring” are possible.
The fire injured six people and spewed black smoke into the surrounding community, prompting a nearly five-hour shelter in place for adjacent neighborhoods as well as road closures.
The blaze broke out around 1:47 p.m., officials said, sending out plumes of black smoke and hundreds of pounds sulphur dioxide. The blaze was contained to the refinery, with company fire personnel and firefighters from the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District combating the blaze. A shelter-in-place alert for parts of Martinez, issued three hours after the blaze began, was lifted just before 9:30 p.m.
Three people were hospitalized with minor injuries due to the blaze, and three others were injured but released at the scene, Contra Costa Fire Battalion Chief Bob Atlas said at a news conference Saturday. At least one was a refinery worker who was “disoriented” and hospitalized, according to an initial report from the state’s Office of Emergency Services, but the refinery reported in a 12:15 a.m. update Sunday that all injured personnel have been released.
County officials initially issued a Level 2 warning characterizing the fire as a possible health threat to people with respiratory sensitivities, before upgrading the warning two hours later to a Level 3 shelter-in-place alert for areas of Martinez north of the facility. Residents in the affected area were asked to stay inside, seal doors and windows, turn off fans and refrain from making nonemergency calls. The alert was downgraded back to a Level 2 Saturday night, but health officials recommended that people with respiratory sensitivities remain indoors.
Shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday, the refinery said that “personnel have been able to close valves and shut down most of the source of the fire.” At 12:15 a.m. Sunday, it said firefighters had “succeeded in getting the fire under their control and remain on site responding to the incident.” The company added: “You may continue to see residual smoke and flaring.”
The Bay Area Air District issued an air quality advisory just before 4 p.m. for parts of Contra Costa and Solano counties due to smoke from the fire, warning that neighborhoods near and downwind of the fire could smell smoke and be exposed to “elevated levels of particulate pollution,” the agency said.
Residents exposed to smoke from the blaze could experience burning eyes and nasal passages, sore throat, dizziness and headaches, and in the most serious cases, shortness or breath or cardiac distress, said Sarah Levin, Contra Costa County’s deputy public health officer. The fire spewed at least 500 pounds of sulphur dioxide, a pollutant, into the atmosphere, refinery operators said, according to an initial report to the state’s Office of Emergency Services.
Around 4 p.m., air quality sensors in downtown Martinez recorded a “moderate” air quality index of 75, indicating a level of particulates that could be harmful for “unusually sensitive people,” according to air quality data. Sensors showed air quality had returned to healthy levels by about 6 p.m. The sensors do not provide a complete picture of air quality because gases are not measured in the same way as particulates.
Martinez Mayor Brianne Zorn acknowledged that the fire was “challenging and scary for our residents,” but added that “the appropriate agencies are responding to this incident.”
The cause of the blaze was unclear. At a news conference, a refinery spokesperson said the company wanted to “apologize” for the fire, but said the refinery was “pretty far” from pinpointing its cause. Refinery operators called the fire a “flaring event … due to a unit upset” and said the fire was “at one of the units near the location of the flaring,” according to the state report.
The refinery, which is run by PBF Energy, will be required to produce a report analyzing the root causes of the fire sometime in the future, in accordance with Martinez’s Industrial Safety Ordinance, health officials said.
The refinery has faced scrutiny from air quality regulators and federal investigators related to repeated flaring and a November 2022 incident in which it spewed toxic dust into Martinez.
Tony Semenza, a longtime Martinez resident and member of an oversight group established after Martinez Refining Co. spewed toxic dust into the community in 2022, said he started driving toward the refinery after receiving reports of flaring at the facility. He saw black smoke and then flames.
“It got considerably worse, then it started to blaze,” Semenza said.
Semenza, who worked as a facility fire chief for Chevron Oil before retiring in 2000, said it appeared to be the type of fire that could not be extinguished until the flames burn off all remaining vapors.
Contra Costa fire dispatched numerous personnel after receiving several reports of black smoke and explosions. The dispatcher said the refinery informed the fire agency it was a carbon fire. The first firefighters on scene told dispatch there was one large flare blowing flames, but also a “substantial fire” inside the refinery.
Teresa Heiderick, 47, who has lived less than a block away from the refinery for decades, said the blaze looked “catastrophic” and was the “worst I’ve ever seen.” Heiderick decided to evacuate to Concord with her two cats, though no official evacuation orders were issued. “The way the refinery looked and the fireball right next to the house, plus the wind and the heat, really scared me,” she said.
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