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Crews still battling flames at Chevron refinery
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
LOS ANGELES - A massive fire erupted Thursday night at a refinery in Southern California.
Firefighters were dispatched around 9:35 p.m. to the Chevron refinery in El Segundo after receiving calls of smoke in the area.
Images from SkyFOX show large flames shooting through the refinery. Several people said they heard a loud bang, saying it felt like an earthquake or sounded like a plane crash since the refinery is near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
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Massive fire erupts at Chevron's El Segundo refinery
Officials said the fire is contained as flames continue to be seen from the Chevron facility in Los Angeles' South Bay region.
Fire departments throughout LA's South Bay region were called in to help.
Rosecrans Avenue from Vista Del Mar to Pacific Coast Highway, and Pacific Coast Highway from Rosecrans Ave to El Segundo Boulevard were shutdown and people were urged to avoid the area.
SUGGESTED: All El Segundo Chevron refinery workers accounted for after massive fire erupts at facility
No evacuations were issued, and no injuries were reported. A Chevron spokesperson confirmed with FOX 11 the blaze never left the Chevron facility and all personnel have been accounted for.
The fire was officially contained just after 8 a.m. Friday.
What we don't know:
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Chevron said they plan to launch their own internal investigation.
Witnesses describe the moments the fire erupted
What they're saying:
One resident who lives nearby said it felt like an earthquake hit, then she looked outside her house and saw flames nearby.
"It felt like an earthquake. And then I saw a red flash through our blinds onto the side of the house facing the refinery. We have two windows there. I'm like, that's the refinery. And then I heard the hiss, that is usually the safety flare, but it was way more intense than usual. So I went and got her up. We booked it out the door and there was just nothing but a ball of fire that looked like it could cross the street and come this way towards all the houses on this side," a witness told FOX 11.
A customer at a nearby Top Golf described the frightening moments she heard a bang and felt rumbling. Several people then started to evacuate from the facility.
"When we stepped outside you could hear the gas and the flames. It was like roaring really loud. It was really surreal. Everyone was leaving in a panic. It was so close. The explosion when it first happened was gigantic. It was so huge. No one really understood what was going on. And, you know, everyone's initial thought was just to leave. And it was kind of hard getting out of the parking lot with so many people trying to leave that area," said witness Celissa Sanchez.
The history behind Chevron's refinery
Dig deeper:
The refinery spans two-square-miles, supplying more than 40% of jet fuel and more than 20% of motor vehicle fuel across all of Southern California. It's the largest producing oil refinery on the West Coast.
There are 1,000 Chevron employees, 1,000 contractors on any given day and their very own Chevron Fire Department with 24 full-time firefighters.
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Get an inside look into Chevron's El Segundo refinery
FOX 11 got an exclusive tour of Chevron’s El Segundo refinery, a sprawling two-square-mile facility near LAX that supplies over 40% of Southern California’s jet fuel and 20% of its gasoline. (Sept. 15, 2025)
The refinery maintains its ability to make roughly 12 million gallons of fuel every day, which is enough gasoline to fill up a million cars a day. When the refinery was built in 1911, the original capacity was 5,000 barrels a day, but today it can process 290,000 daily.
California has approximately 1,300 Chevron stations.
The Source: Information for this story came from the LA County Fire Department and previous FOX 11 reports. Witnesses also spoke to FOX 11.