"On August 6, 2012, a corroded, eight-inch pipe at Chevron’s oil refinery in Richmond, California, cracked open, sending a white cloud hundreds of feet into the air. The cloud quickly engulfed the 19 refinery firefighters, managers and other workers who had been trying to fix what had been a small leak in the pipe.
Some of them went to ground, unable to see past their hands; most ran or crawled out of the way. Then the vapor ignited, trapping a firefighter in a truck. He, too, ran out, through what eyewitnesses called a wall of flame.
That was just the beginning. The fire burned for hours; the smoke choked the Bay Area for days. Fifteen thousand people sought medical care for breathing problems and exposure to the toxic plume; hospitals admitted 20, including one refinery worker.
U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigators concluded that the fire could have been prevented if Chevron had heeded its own inspectors’ pleas to replace the decaying pipe, and if federal and California regulations had mandated better safety practices.Then-Gov. Jerry Brown convened a working group of 13 state agencies and departments to appraise the safety of California’s refineries, clustered in the Bay Area and Los Angeles."
Jim Morris and Molly Peterson report for Public Health Watch April 22, 2025.
Advertisement 
