Martinez refinery fire leaves health and psychological impacts days later
An East Bay community is still feeling the effects from a weekend fire at the Martinez Refining Company that emitted huge plumes of smoke and injured six refinery employees.
The fire at the facility prompted a public health advisory on Saturday that had local residents sheltering in place into the evening. Contra Costa Health officials on Sunday were advising residents with respiratory sensitivity to stay indoors if possible, as concerns about air quality persisted.
On Tuesday, Contra Costa County Supervisor Shanelle Scales-Preston called for a full facility audit of Martinez Refining Company and a town hall to discuss the issues.
Justin Gomez has lived in Martinez for 13 years and is a member of Healthy Martinez, a local refinery accountability group. He was home when he got an air quality alert at around 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. That was roughly 15 minutes after the fire started.
"I went out my door and I saw massive columns of black smoke piling up in the air from the direction of the refinery," said Gomez.
He could hear rumbling coming from MRC's direction and said his kids were afraid.
"My daughter grabbed her stuffies, some family pictures, and her play purse and she said she wanted to leave, so thats what we did," Gomez said.
They went to Concord and got frozen yogurt as a distraction, but his children were still stressed out.
"They were asking if we would be able to go home," said Gomez.
MRC said the fire was caused by a leak of hydrocarbon materials that two workers found during planned maintenance. All the workers started to evacuate as the materials caught fire. Hundreds of pounds of sulphur dioxide were released.
Six workers were treated for health concerns tied to the fire, including four who were hospitalized and released.
Congressman John Garamendi who represents the area says he's not surprised by the incident, but he is concerned.
"Well, this is one more wake up call to the refinery," said Garamendi. "Wake up! Pay attention to your infrastructure. Make sure that your facilities are in good working order. Make sure the pipes and other equipment are well maintained and capable of handling whatever incidents may arise."
The refinery has had a number of issues and violations in the past.
On Thanksgiving 2022, the refinery accidentally released more than 20 tons of industrial chemicals, covering people's cars and homes in metallic dust. Then in July of 2023, the refinery spewed petroleum coke dust into the air. There have also been numerous flaring incidents.
Garamendi believes because of these previous issues, the refinery responded more quickly this time.
"We do know that the refinery -- as a result of the earlier incidents, the fines that were levied by the county and the air quality board -- have had an effect," said Garamendi. "We saw that with this particular fire where they immediately notified the county and the community."
In December of 2023, Contra Costa County Health Health officials make unannounced inspection at Martinez refinery after recent incidents.
According to the Contra Costa Health Hazardous Materials Program report, the review did not identify any areas needing immediate or short-term action.
But Gomez is still unhappy. He says there have been more issues since Shell sold the refinery to PBF Energy in 2020. He wants to see accountability.
"I want to see an investigation from the federal government, from the chemical safety board," said Gomez. "Workers were hurt, and that means it meets the threshold for the federal government to come in and figure out what happened. We need answers and I want to see the refinery shut down in the long term."
MRC says they will investigate the incident further in accordance with the Contra Costa County Industrial Investigation. For now operations have been shut down except for required utility systems.
