Fire breaks out at Toledo refinery
Crews tackled a large fire at Toledo Refining Company in Oregon Tuesday. Firefighters were seen working to get water on the site just before noon and the fire appeared to be dwindling around 12:30 p.m.
A statement from the company was released, noting there were no injuries reported.
"We can confirm that a fire occurred on a gasoline processing unit there at approximately 11:00 am this morning. Refinery crews were actively responding with assistance from the Oregon Fire Department. Importantly, there have been no injuries, and everyone is safe and has been accounted for at the site. We have notified appropriate public officials and regulatory agency representatives, and at this time are unaware of any community impact."
The refinery manager, Mike Gudgeon, said it happened around 11 a.m., following an incident at a gasoline-producing unit at the plant. Two processing units were shut down, but everything else operated as normal Tuesday.
Gudgeon said thankfully, everyone made it out safely.
"We take our relationship with the community very seriously," he said. "So as soon as this incident occurred, we did monitor our fence line to make sure there was no impact to the community. We haven't detected anything of any concern."
Despite common belief, Gudgeon said fires at the refinery don't happen that often.
"We're very proud of our safety record. In fact, we just celebrated a million safe hours by the employees and we've also had a million hours by our contractors," he explained. "So, we're very, very proud of our safety record. That's why this is unusual for us."
Original reporting by: WTOL Newsroom
https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/large-fire-breaks-out-toledo-refinery/512-ee15b82c-5b23-41c9-9245-e0a65f937bdf
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