Huge Martinez Refinery Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration

Updated 5:27 p.m. Monday

Last weekend’s major fire at an East Bay refinery, which caused dangerous air conditions and spurred a shelter-in-place order, has reignited concern from community members over the facility’s rocky few years and impact on their neighborhoods.

The blaze at Martinez Refining Co.’s petroleum refinery was reported by the company around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, hours after the Bay Area Air District began receiving complaints of odors in the area. It sent plumes of black smoke into the air for hours and forced much of Martinez and the surrounding communities of Pacheco and Clyde to shelter in place until late Saturday night.

Fire officials mostly extinguished the fire by 11 a.m. Sunday and Martinez Refining Co. said it was fully contained to the refinery site. However, dangerous airborne chemicals released by the fire could spread much farther and linger for days, adding to the burden already faced by neighboring communities.

“I think it’s a constant issue with the refinery that people are concerned about — what’s escaping the stacks?” asked Dawn Elton, who manages an ACE Hardware store less than a mile from the refinery. She shut down her store Saturday afternoon after seeing the huge black cloud.

On Monday afternoon, the Bay Area Air District issued two notices of violation to the Martinez refinery for public nuisance, excessive smoke and soot fallout. The agency said more violations are possible as it continues to investigate.

The fire started after two workers discovered a leak of hydrocarbon material while preparing for planned maintenance at one of the refinery’s process units. They evacuated the area before the material caught on fire and spread within the immediate vicinity, according to the company.

At least six people have been treated for health concerns related to the fire, including three who were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. Workers who were taking air quality readings experienced dizziness, the company said.

Although most of the visible smoke had cleared by late Sunday and the shelter-in-place was downgraded to a health advisory — meaning conditions were mostly dangerous to elderly and immuno-compromised people — Elton is worried that there could also be longer-term effects for her and other locals.

“It was raining, so did [rainwater] go into the soil? Was anything dangerous to us that will come back later to harm us in some way?” she asked.

Living near oil refineries like the one in Martinez is already hazardous, even without a fire or flaring incident.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, petroleum refineries can release thousands of pounds of BTEX compounds — benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene, as well as carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide — each year. Many of these are known or suspected to cause cancer and developmental or reproductive problems and worsen pre-existing respiratory conditions.

“There can be potentially more risk for people living nearby because they have chronic exposure to hazardous chemicals and then these spikes of exposure that could exacerbate many different types of health risks,” said David Gonzalez, an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “This is something that people living near the refinery have been calling attention to for a long time.”

Saturday’s fire was the third major incident at the Martinez refinery since Shell sold it to PBF Energy in 2020.

In 2022, the refinery released nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered industrial chemicals into the air. There were also more than a dozen notices that hazardous materials were released or spilled by the site in 2023, and flaring occurred at least three times last year.

Martinez Refining Co. said in a statement that it would investigate the root cause of the fire and apologized “for the disruption and concern” it caused to the community.

However, many residents want the site to be shut down, and some, like Samantha Viano, are hoping local officials will step in to make sure this trend doesn’t continue.

“It just seems like this kind of stuff is happening more and more, which is really scary,” said Viano.

Most of her extended family lives in Martinez, and she said in her 30 years in the city, there have been many spills, but only one other shelter-in-place order.

“How are they going to stop this from happening?” she said. “Because I think the whole community is really scared now.”

KQED’s Sara Hossaini contributed to this report.