Four injured in blaze at Exxon refinery

Authorities on Thursday were trying to determine the cause of an early-morning fire at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Baytown that left four people injured and officials monitoring the air.

The cause of the fire, which started around 1 a.m. and was extinguished eight hours later, remained unclear as fire investigators waited for the completion of air monitoring to ensure it was physically safe to be at the scene and conduct their investigation, said Rachel Neutzler of the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office.

Exxon Mobil in a statement said that available information showed “no adverse air quality monitoring impact to the community or personnel on site.” The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said there were no detectable odors.

“We are coordinating with authorities as appropriate, and all findings will be incorporated in our continuing effort to enhance our safety performance,” Exxon spokeswoman Julie King said in an email. “We deeply regret any disruption or inconvenience that this incident caused to the community.”

Exxon said the fire occurred at the company’s unit for hydrodesulfurization, a chemical process used to remove sulfur from natural gas and refined petroleum products.

Four people were taken to hospitals — three by helicopter and one by ambulance — with injuries that included flash burns and a broken leg, authorities said. All were reported in stable condition.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said initial reports indicated some type of explosion occurred inside the plant. Exxon did not mention an explosion in its statement.

Neutzler said determining whether an explosion had occurred will be part of the probe. Investigators had conducted interviews but still needed to canvass the scene. She said the investigation can potentially help prevent similar incidents in the future.

“We do these with hopes that the industry will learn from it, that we will learn from it,” she said.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo expressed gratitude for the first responders.

“The workers who were injured are in my heart as we all wish for a prompt recovery,” Hidalgo said in a tweet Thursday morning.

Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, said it was too early to know how the incident could affect gasoline production and prices.

Exxon’s Baytown refinery is the fourth largest nationally, with a processing capacity of 560,500 barrels of crude per day as of Jan. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

“This is a large facility but I do NOT believe this will cause a large spike in (prices) at this time,” De Haan said on Twitter.

Thursday’s incident was not the first at Exxon’s 3,400-acre Baytown complex, some 25 miles east of Houston.

In July 2019, a fire at Exxon’s Olefins Plant wounded 37 people and darkened the sky with smoke. It was one of a string of industrial accidents at Houston-area plants that year.

In March, a federal judge imposed a $14.25 million penalty on Exxon for violating the federal Clean Air Act at its Baytown refinery over a period of eight years.

“Exxon’s Baytown facility has a long history of environmental violations that put people’s health at risk,” Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, said in a statement. “This is the second major industrial disaster at Baytown in the past three years. Texas needs to hold Exxon accountable for the dangerous conditions at the Baytown refinery and chemical complex that caused this unnecessary disaster.”

Exxon said community members could receive more information about the fire by calling 1-800-241-9010.

The refinery began operating in 1920, according to its website. The complex has approximately 2,168 employees, plus an average of nearly 2,400 personnel under contract.

Andrea Leinfelder contributed to this report. alejandro.serrano@chron.com paul.takahashi@chron.com