A fire broke out at a Chevron oil refinery outside of Los Angeles Thursday night, sending towering flames and a dark plume of smoke into the night sky.
The fire erupted around 9:30 p.m., the El Segundo Police Department said. There were no injuries at the refinery and all personnel were accounted for, the company said in a statement late Thursday, adding that a monitoring system indicated the fire did not move beyond the facility’s fence line.
By early Friday, the fire was contained and there was no threat to public safety, the city said in a statement. No evacuations had been ordered.
While the exact reason for the fire is still unclear, the fire is believed to have originated from an isolation unit in the refinery, according to LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.
“We have zero reported injuries and all workers and contractors are accounted for,” said El Segundo Mayor Chris Pimentel. “We rehearse these things in conjunction with Chevron all the time. We do a full sweep of disaster preparedness drills. Everything from spills in the ocean to fires at the refinery.”
Residents near the Chevron El Segundo Refinery described feeling a rumble before seeing the orange glow coming from the refinery.
“I never ever fear anything. This (fire), I got in panic mode when I saw it,” a neighbor told NBC Los Angeles. “It looked like about 7 to 10 football fields wide of a flame and smoke billowing in the air.”
Several LA County Fire and El Segundo Fire Department crews were on scene to assist with the fire. LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell said fire crews had contained the blaze to one section of the refinery.
The Governor has been briefed on the incident at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery in Los Angeles County.
Our office is coordinating in real time with local and state agencies to protect the surrounding community and ensure public safety.
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) October 3, 2025
A shelter-in-place order for nearby Manhattan Beach south of El Segundo was lifted Friday.
No immediate air pollution problems were detected. An air quality index map Friday showed good levels for the Los Angeles area, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
It was not immediately clear how the fire and its impact on refinery operations might impact fuel prices. Californians already pay the nation’s highest prices for gas. NBCLA has reached out the California Energy Commission for comment on possible consumer impacts.
A gallon of regular gas was priced Friday morning at $4.642 in California. The national average for a gallon of regular was $3.152.
El Segundo is a beachside city located about a mile (1.6 kilometers) south of Los Angeles International Airport. LA Mayor Karen Bass wrote in a post on X that there was no known impact to the airport.
The refinery covers roughly 1.5 square miles and has more than 1,100 miles of pipelines, according to the company’s website. The refinery, which has been in operation since 1911, can refine up to 290,000 barrels of crude oil per day, including gasoline, jet and diesel fuels, according to the company’s website.
The refinery has more than a century of history in the seaside community. In 1911, when kerosene for lamps was in high demand, the location was selected as the site for Standard Oil Company’s second refinery in California.
The city was named El Segundo, “the second” in Spanish, in recognition of the refinery
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