At least 4 injured after 'major industrial accident' at ExxonMobil facility in Baytown, Texas
At least four people were injured early Thursday when a large fire broke out at an ExxonMobil oil refinery in Texas.
Emergency response teams extinguished a fire that broke out around 1 a.m. at the Baytown refinery, about 25 miles east of Houston, the company said in a statement. Initial reports indicated an explosion of some kind had occurred inside the plant, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on Twitter.
Officials cautioned residents to avoid the area of the "major industrial accident" as deputies responded to the scene but did not issue an evacuation or shelter in place order.
Three injured people were taken to hospitals by helicopters and a fourth was transported in an ambulance, Harris said. No fatalities were reported.
Rohan Davis, the refinery's manager, said everyone else working at the site has been accounted for. The refinery, which can process up to 584,000 barrels of crude oil each day, employs about 7,000 people, according to the company's website.
The fire occurred in a unit that produces gasoline and a section of the plant has been isolated but the rest is still in operation, Davis said. When asked if an explosion occurred, Davis said a fire broke out at the time of the event but that the company is still collecting information.
"We will do a thorough investigation to make sure an event like this doesn't happen again," Davis said. "We're really sorry for what's happened."
The cause of the fire is not yet known. ExxonMobil said air quality monitoring along the fence line has not found any "adverse impacts" to the community or employees on site.
"Our first priority is the people in the community and in our facilities," the company said in a statement. "We deeply regret any disruption or inconvenience that this incident may have caused the community."
In July 2019, an explosion and fire rocked an ExxonMobil plant in Baytown and left nearly 40 people with minor injuries, prompting the city to issue a shelter in place order.
Another fire erupted at a refinery at the complex in March 2019 that was extinguished within hours, but continued to release toxic pollutants for eight days, according to Harris County officials.
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Contributing: The Associated Press