Massive fireballs at Exxon refinery in Torrance

[fan_since79]

Watching on KCAL 9 right now. Unreal sight. Del Amo Blvd and other streets closed down. Fire shooting out of two towers and a lot of smoke. Not clear on the cause.

 

This is the same refinery that had the explosion more than a year ago and it's still not repaired. The company issued a short statement tonight saying, in effect, that everything was under control.

 

 

 

 

[gotbeer]

Everything is under control.  They needed to raise gas prices to meet stockholder expectations.

[fan_since79]

Exxon is blaming it on a power outage. That's creative.

 

[Tank]

$4 gas in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

[Redondo]

And here we go with the higher gas prices

[Brandon]

Used to work there. Not too much of a big deal as depending on the chemical mix you would see shit like this, not all the time, but not a surprise either.

The main thing is they are fined x amount for every second that it happens. Although that doesn't look like a gas based flame. The blue flames are the ones that are really expensive.

[ABC]

[fan_since79]

And here we go with the higher gas prices

 

That, and the rising price of oil ($41 today). They'll be going up, up ,up.

[ABC]

[nando714]

Crooks

[Chris]

Saw it and helicopters from my balcony just a few blocks away.  Closed all the windows.  Told my family to get ready for an emergency evacuation but to stay calm because everything is perfectly normal.  They said wut??

[ten ocho recon scout]

Used to work there. Not too much of a big deal as depending on the chemical mix you would see shit like this, not all the time, but not a surprise either.

The main thing is they are fined x amount for every second that it happens. Although that doesn't look like a gas based flame. The blue flames are the ones that are really expensive.

what did you do there? Had a few friends who were fire safety (?) At the BP refinery but havent talked to them in years

[Adam]

He was a fluffer

[fan_since79]

Saw it and helicopters from my balcony just a few blocks away.  Closed all the windows.  Told my family to get ready for an emergency evacuation but to stay calm because everything is perfectly normal.  They said wut??

 

ExxonMobil’s deliberate failure to repair faulty equipment at its Torrance refinery for four years, leading to a potentially life-threatening leak last September of hydrofluoric acid, resulted Friday in a $72,120 state fine for three safety and workplace violations.

One of the citations issued by Cal/OSHA was classified as “willful-serious” indicating the company was aware of the hazard, but did not take reasonable steps to fix it.

“A minor repair could have prevented workers at this refinery from exposure to a life-threatening acid,” said Juliann Sum, who heads up the state Department of Industrial Relations. “These citations and penalties are a wake-up call that refineries must follow strict safety protocols.

 

A catastrophic leak of the acid has the potential to kill or injure thousands of people who live around the plant.

 

http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20160304/state-fines-exxonmobil-again-for-failing-to-fix-torrance-refinery-equipment

[Ray McKigney]

[Brandon]

what did you do there? Had a few friends who were fire safety (?) At the BP refinery but havent talked to them in years

A buddy of mine was a supervisor for a third party company and got me I'm because I saw the writing on the wall with the mortgage industry in 05 or 06. Basically we did the equivalent of sonograms on the pipes at this refinery. Every January they kind of shut the the refinery down and multiple companies come in an inspect the pipes, weld where needed, etc.

I got to climb around, dress up in the Homer Simpson yellow protection suit and go in the acid chambers, etc. to inspect the pipes for corrosion.

Only did it for the month, they wanted me to travel around the world and do the same thing but the dude I was paired with talked me out of it and was just miserable.

Speaking of fluffing, people were getting busted because the safety units (as entry level as it gets) were prostituting there for extra cash. Pretty wild hearing the stories of people getting caught in the port-a-potties and what not.

[Adam]

A buddy of mine was a supervisor for a third party company and got me I'm because I saw the writing on the wall with the mortgage industry in 05 or 06. Basically we did the equivalent of sonograms on the pipes at this refinery. Every January they kind of shut the the refinery down and multiple companies come in an inspect the pipes, weld where needed, etc.

I got to climb around, dress up in the Homer Simpson yellow protection suit and go in the acid chambers, etc. to inspect the pipes for corrosion.

Only did it for the month, they wanted me to travel around the world and do the same thing but the dude I was paired with talked me out of it and was just miserable.

Speaking of fluffing, people were getting busted because the safety units (as entry level as it gets) were prostituting there for extra cash. Pretty wild hearing the stories of people getting caught in the port-a-potties and what not.

 

I remember you talking about this gig. Money sounded great but man...lot of hours and seemed like a rough gig

[Brandon]

Normal shift was 4 10's and for the most part you're just sitting around until you get a call that whatever site is ready to be checked. It was actually a lush little gig. My buddy loved. The month straight of 12 hour shifts was just when they do the shutdown. The pay because of overtime was pretty gnarly.

I almost got sent home once for dozing off...we worked 6pm to 6am, so we'd get breakfast at the bar across the street where my buddies cousin worked. You can't get smashed and only get a couple hours sleep on that schedule.

The normal schedule with three day weekends would have been great.

Problem is I kind of went in guns a blazing about doing well (make my buddy look good), promotion, etc. They'd literally higher people off the streets just for these shutdown gigs and only kept a couple. I did well or at least stood out and with them offering me the gig they also offered a special position which initially sounded great of travelling the world and just checking refinery pipes in various locations doing a different method. Towards the end of the month they teamed me up with an older dude that did it to kind of learn before transferring full time. Like I said, the dude was miserable. He kept saying how the travel was to third world countries where some places had no toilets and you'd shit in the ground or go out to eat and have no idea what you're being served or if it's dog meat. Just made it sound godawful....plus the method he was doing was boring as shit.

Told them no thanks and apologized, but thanked them for the opportunity. They were pissed and my buddy hated me. I just worked the month, made bank, then came back to the mortgage industry rejuvenated and grateful which lead to starting the company.

Another wild aspect is the oil industry is all union. Well, they decided to go on strike towards the end. I was one of two selected to go across "the line" where they wanted to sneak four of us in to wrap up some jobs needed before the month was up. That seemed kind of sketchy. We weren't union, but those dudes wouldn't have taken kindly to us going in.

Interesting experience. I used to have a ton of pictures from the highest points (speaking of sketchy) of the refinery of the LA skyline.

The first dude I partnered with just wanted to sleep the whole shift. But me being serious requested a change and they put me with a good worker, but he was a former vet with really bad ptsd from being blown up while in a tank. Dude was erratic and would just snap or act weird out of the blue.