Breaking News: Worker Injured in Wednesday Fire at PBF Energy's Martinez Refinery
Latest incident comes as refinery was planning to restart some operations following massive Feb. 1 fire
Another fire broke out at PBF Energy’s Martinez refinery on Wednesday evening, injuring a contract worker. The incident came as the refinery was planning to restart some operations after the massive Feb. 1 fire that left it largely shuttered for the past two months.
In a Facebook post, Martinez Refining Co. (MRC) said the following:
At approximately 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, a portable air compressor at the refinery caught on fire while being refueled by a contract worker, who was transported offsite for medical evaluation and treatment. The fire was extinguished and was unrelated to any of our process units. We issued a Community Warning System Level 1 alert and notified appropriate agencies. The incident is currently under investigation.
A Level 1 CWS alert indicates that no off-site impacts are anticipated from the incident, making this fire much less significant than the Feb. 1 blaze that raged out of control for hours, injured six workers, and eventually promptly a shelter-in-place advisory for nearby residents.
In its own Facebook post, Contra Costa Health said it has asked the refinery to submit a 72-hour report on what it knows about the incident.
The fire came on the same day that MRC announced on its website that it was planning to restart some process units that were not involved in the Feb. 1 fire. The restart was planned to begin on Thursday, April 3.
“We anticipate the restart process will take approximately two weeks, during which there will be potential for intermittent flaring,” the refinery wrote. “We are working diligently to minimize flaring and will only flare if necessary for safety and reliability reasons.”
The refinery also emphasized in that statement that the units damaged in the Feb. 1 fire are not anticipated to come back online until the fourth quarter of the year, which begins in September.
Tuesday’s fire comes on the heels of a town hall event last month hosted by Contra Costa County Supervisor Shanelle Scales-Preston in which residents expressed exhaustion and anger over the string of hazardous releases and other incidents at the refinery that started with the major spent catalyst release on Thanksgiving night in 2022 — and the seeming inability of regulators to hold MRC accountable and bring about change.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office, which announced shortly after the 2022 spent catalyst release that it was investigating the refinery’s handling of that incident, including its failure to immediately alert the community and public health authorities, has yet to take any action, despite expanding the inquiry in late 2023 into a “joint civil enforcement action” in collaboration with local and regional regulators.
Refinery Manager Daniel Ingram was largely defiant in the face of the anger at the town hall, failing to issue an apology for the Feb. 1 fire, reiterating the refinery’s commitment to safety, and vowing to rebuild the parts of the refinery damaged by the fire, while emphasizing the good-paying jobs that the refinery provides.
Resident frustration again spilled out onto social media in the wake of Wednesday’s incident. The city of Martinez, which has no regulatory authority over the refinery as oversight lies with the county, had received over 40 comments as of early Thursday to an Instagram post alerting the community to the fire. One wrote:
”I have a young child whose health I need to consider. Make it right City of Martinez, CA - City Hall otherwise we’ll need to reconsider our future but if possible I’d rather stay and raise my family here. We love Martinez.”
The city, which has seen its population fall since the pandemic, could be hurt economically if families reconsider moving here or choose to leave out of concern over the safety of the refinery. It is already struggling to keep its budget balanced as expenditures outrun revenues amid falling sales tax revenue.
The situation could be even more acute for the Martinez Unified School District, which finds itself in a budget crisis driven in part by the fact that its enrollment has fallen by roughly 9% since the pandemic. The school district, which has several school sites in close proximity to the refinery, has had to make significant budget cuts the past two years, and has been drawing heavily on its reserves, which are on pace to drop near the state-required 3% minimum level within the next couple of years.