A flare-up was reported at Chevron's Richmond oil refinery located in California, San Francisco Bay on 19 June.
According to accounts on social media, some smoke was seen around 4 p.m. from the 2900-acre petroleum refinery, followed by more smoke around 9:15 p.m. Some local residents were alarmed by the incident.
"It's not supposed to happen. They're not supposed to just burn off chemicals and pollute the sky… It felt like the world was ending," said Matt Renner of Richmond Hills to NBC Bay Area.
The fire department assured everything was okay and that refinery workers had everything under control. In addition, no instances of injuries were reported.
"Although the sight of the flare may cause concern, we want to assure our neighbors that occasional flaring is an important part of keeping the refinery running safely," according to a tweet from the refinery's Twitter account. "Flares are a safety device used in refineries to relieve pressure during the refining processes and help keep our equipment and plants operating safely."
By Erwin Cifuentes for Oilprice.com
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Erwin Cifuentes is a Contributing Editor for Southern Pulse Info where he focuses on politics, economics and security issues in Latin America and the Caribbean.… More