Booming Fire Tears Through Offices at Wilmington Refinery

Add Feedback

Share |

Flames engulfed an administrative office building as Firefighters battled a massive fire at the ConocoPhillips Refinery.

The call was made at 4:22 am on January 16, 2012 by a passerby who noticed fire in a second-floor window of a two-story, administrative building at 1660 West Anaheim Street in Wilmington. First on-scene resources confirmed a large portion of the second floor fully-involved in flames.

A quick and aggressive interior fire-attack was made on the 75' x 300' structure of masonry construction, as companies on the Spanish tile roof assisted by cutting ventilation holes.

It was only 30 minutes into the incident, however, that Firefighters experienced a partial roof collapse of the nearly 100 year-old structure and the decision was made by the Incident Commander to pull all Firefighters off and out of the structure.

By that time, over 160 Firefighters had been called to the scene of this "Major Emergency Structure Fire".

Firefighters continued their diligent work hoping to prevent this blaze from extending to any of the adjacent structures on the property. Large hosestreams were targeted from the exterior on the now well-entrenched flames. They were joined by the "fire brigade" of ConocoPhillips to assist with any technical expertise that may have aided in the firefight.

However, at no time was the refinery itself or any of its petroleum products ever in jeopardy. Business at the entire ConocoPhillips Refinery will resume following the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported, despite a firefight that lasted 3 hours and 48 minutes. There were no occupants in the building at the time of the fire.

Dollar-loss estimates are not yet available and the exact cause of the blaze is under active investigation by the LAFD's Arson/Counter Terrorism Section.

Republished with permission of the Los Angeles Fire Department. View original article here.



Author:Matt Spence - PIO - LAFD