A massive fire was burning at a Chevron refinery on Thursday, sending large flames and a dark plume of smoke up into the air in El Segundo, Los Angeles.
The fire erupted around 9:30 p.m. at the refinery in the 300 block of West El Segundo Boulevard, the El Segundo Police Department said.
While the exact reason for the fire is still unclear, the fire is believed to have originated from an isolation unit in the refinery, according to LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.
"We have zero reported injuries and all workers and contractors are accounted for," said El Segundo Mayor Chris Pimentel. "We rehearse these things in conjunction with Chevron all the time. We do a full sweep of disaster preparedness drills. Everything from spills in the ocean to fires at the refinery."
Neighbors tell NBC Los Angeles they heard a loud bang before seeing the orange glow coming from the refinery.
"I never ever fear anything. This (fire), I got in panic mode when I saw it," a neighbor told NBC4. "It looked like about 7 to 10 football fields wide of a flame and smoke billowing in the air."
Several LA County Fire and El Segundo Fire Department crews were on scene to assist with the fire.
"Chevron fire department personnel, including emergency responders from the City of El Segundo and Manhattan Beach are actively responding to an isolated fire inside the Chevron El Segundo Refinery. All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries," wrote a Chevron spokesperson in a statement. "No evacuation orders for area residents have been put in place by emergency response agencies monitoring the incident, and no exceedances have been detected by the facilities fence line monitoring system."
The city of Manhattan Beach issued a shelter-in-place order as a result of the fire.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District says air monitors in the nearby communities are "not showing elevated levels of particulate matter or air toxics," but that could change throughout the night.