Four critically injured in fire at ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Refinery
23 November 2016
Four people were in critical condition after a fire at the ExxonMobil refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on November 22, a local hospital said. The fire broke out at an alyklation unit, which produces high-octane gasoline components, as five people prepared to restart it following repair work, sources familiar with the plant’s operations told Reuters.
ExxonMobil said the fire was extinguished in the afternoon by its own fire teams and the company had accounted for all staff at the refinery.
A compressor blew out during the restart attempt, the sources said, setting off the blaze. Two female operators and two contractors were injured.
An Exxon spokesman said the incident was under investigation.
The refinery is the fourth-largest in the United States, with capacity to refine 502,500 bpd in crude oil and sits on 2,400 acres along the Mississippi River in north Baton Rouge.
The Baton Rouge plant was hit by flooding in August, forcing Exxon to shut down one of the crude processing units and curtail output at another. The plant returned to normal output in September.
The incident was the fourth in two days to hit Gulf refineries, cutting fuel production in the region at plants with combined capacity of over 1 million barrels per day.
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