Mylar Balloon Causes Flare-Up at Exxon Mobil Refinery

This article was reported and written by City News Service.

A fireball that shot out of a smokestack at the Exxon Mobil Refinery in Torrance on Thursday was caused by a momentary power problem that prompted a plant restart, and a fire captain said more hydrocarbon flaring may be seen over the next 24 hours.

The problem was caused by a Mylar balloon that got caught in power lines, according Torrance Fire Capt. Steve Deuel.

According to Southern California Edison spokeswoman Lauren Bartlett, "SCE did not have any outages in the Torrance area today."

"However, at 9:16 a.m. a Mylar balloon came in contact with two transmission lines in the Torrance area and this resulted in a momentary voltage fluctuation," Bartlett said.

"We do not have reports of any service interruptions to residential customers. SCE is continuing to investigate the incident."

The voltage fluctuation also affected some residents of Rolling Hills Estates, as well as possibly some in Rolling Hills.

Hundreds of workers were temporarily evacuated from the refinery in the 3700 block of 190th Street, near Prairie Avenue after the problem was reported, Deuel said.

"Torrance fire hazmat conducted monitoring around the nearby area, and found zero readings of any off-site airborne products," Torrance fire Capt. Steve Deuel said. "However, several transient, off-site odor complaints were received."

"The process of restarting the refinery is complicated, and intermittent flaring (burnoff) may occur over the next 12-24 hours," Deuel said.

The electrical problem apparently occurred in SCE equipment along Yukon Avenue.