Updated (again): Smoke near Long Beach, CA apparently a refinery fire (reported as planned burn).

[cbayer]

Last edited Sat Sep 15, 2012, 07:15 PM - Edit history (3)

Nothing on news feeds, though, which seems odd.

And ABC news webcam no longer showing that shot, which also seems odd.

[Cleita]

1. Are there still oil refineries there?

I remember the fires from about fifty years ago coming from that area. Being that it's LA, the news will be there shortly.

[cbayer]

2. There are oil fields, but I don't know about refineries.

It's deadly hot here and we had Santa Ana Winds last night, so I'm concerned.

Will watch the news feeds.

[Cleita]

4. Post when you find out.

I'm up on the Central Coast and our news outlets are pathetic for any news outside our county.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. I'm just a few minutes south of Long Beach and haven't seen anything.

But Long Beach is long and the place where the refineries are located, at the northern end where it meets Wilmington and San Pedro is a fur piece.

[cbayer]

7. I'm seeing it from Catalina. Looks like it might be right at the end of Palos Verdes or even behind

Palos Verdes.

I am pretty sure it's not just refinery smoke and it's hundreds of feet tall, so I am surprised that you can't see it.

[goclark]

14. I'm North of there , googled and nothing up yet

There was to be a huge "Lobster Fest" in San Pedro today but that is all I see so far.

There was a big fire yesterday near the Getty Museum.

Smoke was all over the sky for miles.

[left coaster]

5. Maybe the smoke is from the fire near the Getty Center? They are calling it the Sepulveda fire..

I know it's not exactly in the LB area, but it's the only fire I've heard mention of in the past day or so..

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=weather/wildfire_center&id=8811894

[Cleita]

6. Sepulveda pass is pretty far from Long Beach. n/t

[cbayer]

8. Definitely not coming from Sepulveda Pass.

[left coaster]

9. Um, yeah, I'm aware of that having lived in L.A. most of my 54 years..

Sometimes the smoke from fires can be seen long distances.. anyway, just offered a suggestion.. have a nice ___

[cbayer]

10. It looks like it is going straight up off Palos Verdes.

Maybe this happens all the time from the refineries, but I have never noticed?

[Cleita]

12. I'm not being critical. Sorry if it came across like that.

If you hadn't lived in LA and were just looking at news, you might not know.

[Sedona]

11. KFI reporting brush fire in Rustic Canyon

but that a ways away from Long Beach too

[KansDem]

13. I was living near Long Beach City College during the great Hancock Fire of 1958

I remember standing in my backyard and watching great bellows of black smoke coming from Signal Hill. I was only five at the time but still remember it like it was last week.

I know the oil industry left Signal Hill years ago, but could this San Pedro/Long Beach fire could be another oil industry location still operating?

[Cleita]

15. I remember that. I was living in Hollywood. n/t

[Sedona]

16. smoke seen on this Long Beach webcam

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/feature?section=weather/photos&id=5790343

[lpbk2713]

18. That looks like it's coming out of a smoke stack or chimney of some sort.

[goclark]

20. Just called my friend in Palos Verdes

Her 90 yr.old mother lives in Long Beach.

Thanks so much for updating us.

[cbayer]

19. That is definitely it. Is it coming from a smokestack?

[goclark]

17. Still nothing on google other then this Post on DU

I'll keep checking

PS/ I once lived in San Pedro , one block from the water.

A huge hill started sinking into the ocean area below it last year I believe -- someplace I read that it was because of " Fracking" from Oil Wells in the area.

I don't recall Oil Wells when I lived there.

[cbayer]

21. In light of no news on this, this must be something normal for the refinery.

Perhaps we just haven't noticed it before because the conditions make it very, very visible right now.

Thanks everyone, going to change my subject line so people won't be alarmed.

[Cleita]

22. Except that the refineries usually don't operate on weekends.

Back in the days when LA smog was so bad you sometimes could barely see across the street, we always noticed that the air cleared up somewhat on weekends and especially holiday weekends. Of course, back then the propaganda shills blamed it on cars, but clever us, we the people, knew that people still drove on the weekends. Actually, anybody flying into LA during the week could see the black smoke belching from the refineries. It was pretty obvious to everyone except the politicians who were in the back pocket of the oil companies. Finally, the refineries were nailed and made to clean up much, not all of their emissions as was the auto industry. I digress with this little story. I still don't think they operate on weekends. That fire on the cam strikes me as a building on fire. You might see them touch on it in the evening news.

[cbayer]

23. It may have to do with the heat. We are just a little skittish about fires right now.

The Santa Ana that came through here last night was really noticeable, so I think I am just being overly cautious.

Hopefully it's just a building fire or something completely contained.

[Sedona]

24. there's no way this can be "normal"

nt

[wolfwatcher]

25. Husband is a flight instructor, teaching around Torrance, texted me about this...

this is the only place online I found discussing it. I'm in Altadena and smoke plume is clearly visible.
A neighbor friend found this on twitter:
http://twitter.yfrog.com/jn296tnjjxvodkbrkyilulxbz

So appears to be a refinery fire...nothing on the news at all. (is this normal operations??)

[cbayer]

31. Thanks for that wolfwatcher. Definitely coming from a smokestack in that video.

[Linlab]

26. I FOUND OUT WHAT IT IS!!!!!

I've been looking all over the internet for the answer to this....I see it from the Seal Beach
area. Finally I just called the newsroom at ABCchannel 7 and they said that IT'S A REFINERY
FIRE IN CARSON AT CONICO-PHILLIPS. They told me that they don't even have any crews
going over there because there's "so many fires going on"!

[Cleita]

27. Good work!

Welcome to DU!

[Sedona]

28. Well Done!

Here it is.

http://goo.gl/maps/RiSI7

[cbayer]

30. Thanks for that, Linlab.

It looks like it is getting bigger from here (Catalina). Hope we get some news soon.

Interestingly, the ABC webcam changed their direction so you can't see it anymore.

[wolfwatcher]

32. I noticed they moved it too!

Went back to look at the webcam so I didn't have to go outside (its so hot!!) and poof, now looking at something else.
Interesting...tired of answering questions about it?

Tweets from ABS/CBS/KCAL all say this is a "procedural refinery burn off"...nothing out of the ordinary. It certainly looks extra-ordinary to me.

[cbayer]

33. Procedural refinery burn off? That seems like a bad idea in light of the current conditions, but

I hope they have it all contained.

[Cleita]

34. Or they could be lying about it to not alarm people,

hoping they can get it under control before the sh*t hits the fan. I hope not, but it's been done before.

[cbayer]

36. We shall see. It looks like it is slowing down, but you think they would make this

information available so as to not alarm people.

I mean, it was quite a dramatic sight from here and we are at least 25 miles away.

[Cleita]

38. In the eye of the beholder.

You probably get a better view from a distance. I just called a friend of mine who lives in Carson. She wasn't aware of anything, but did say that she thought she smelled something funny. She's going to let me know if anything drastic is happening.

[Sedona]

35. KFI Reporting "planned burn off"

(edited to say....Yeah I know its a right wing station but their weekend non political programming is pretty good)

[Cleita]

37. Very odd they would do that during Santa Ana winds on

the weekend. Usually, any kind of burn offs are done during damp weather conditions here in California. I think I'll wait and see.

[calimary]

41. Spotted it when we were out running errands. The all-news station

This single flume of dark smoke rising out of the flats out a little farther below the big hill that is the Palos Verdes peninsula. Meanwhile, farther off to the north and west up in the mountain canyons, brushfires! Three that I was able to see. One spot east of the freeway, one spot deeper within the canyons to the west of the freeway. We saw two different kinds of water drops - helicopter and airplane - in what locals were saying was Rustic Canyon and the Will Rogers area and the Mandeville Canyon area. There was a third one, I think, just inside the Valley end of the Sepulveda Pass - LOTS of thick light-brown smoke in this one localized area but I couldn't see any fire.

And it's hot here. Been hot for awhile and dry, hasn't rained in months except for something quick and flukey a couple of weeks or so ago. So there's lots of good rich fire food in the hills all over L.A.

[cbayer]

42. Yep, everyone is kind of anxious. This island is ripe for a fire as well, so we hope they haven't

weakened any of the prevention measures now that less people are camping and hiking.

Anyway, looks like the refinery fire is done, thank goodness, but the smoke still hovers.

[Sedona]

43. Update on refinery flare

http://www.presstelegram.com/breakingnews/ci_21552891/wilmington-refinery-flare-causes-black-plume-south-bay

Power outage required burn off of fuel in pipes. That was a whole lot of fuel!

[cbayer]

44. The images I have seen are really impressive.

I'm just glad it wasn't my imagination and even more glad that it wasn't an uncontrolled fire.

Thanks for the update, Sedona!

[SoapBox]

45. OMG!

I did not see this post yesterday.

We have a freak'n VIEW of that damned toxic refinery, out of our kitchen window...it can't be anymore than .75 - 1 mile away...it's in Harbor City...now owned by Phillips (it has changed hands so many times over the years, that we've lost count).

So we noticed the burn off at about 1:00PM...originally two of the stacks with MASSIVE flames (when this happens and it has happened before) that must be at least 12-15 feet tall, from the top of the stack, and BELCHING thick, black smoke.

According to the LATimes.com site...the plant lost ALL power and they were just burning off some product in the lines.

HELL, that went on until well after dark (so we could not see the smoke) and the flames (one burned continuous from at least 1:00PM and the second one was on and off)...I was up until 1AM, and the flames were still going (at least 12 hours?). They had stopped by this morning.

That smoke was thicker and blacker than I have seen in 20 years. We don't know what the hell was going on but that smoke could not have been healthy for anyone that it drifted over. Usually, we get a West to East wind in the afternoons but it was so flipp'n hot yesterday (it was 102F in our driveway), we ended up with virtually no wind. It appeared to be drifting mostly North of the plant (over the golf course and Harbor College area). I'll tell ya, IF it had started to head our way, we were getting the hell out of the area...needless to say, we kept the windows all closed (thank goodness we have A/C).

There have been so many bullshit things that have happened over there over the years...and all we get is some pablum from a "spokesperson"...most of us in the neighborhood figure we are all dead, due to garbage from over there.

[cbayer]

46. What was really weird was the lack of any news coverage whatsoever.

Once we noticed it, I kept looking and looking for info, as did many who participated in this thread.

So sorry that you are so close to it. It must have been scary, because it was alarming from way over here.

Glad you are ok.

[SoapBox]

47. Thanks!

That lack of coverage is the norm.

Many years ago, there was an explosion at that Texaco plant (to the side of the 405, just South of the Ikea mall), that blew something up. At the time, we had our kitchen window open and it blew the mini-blind up and made a huge noise....5 miles? At least?

It got virtually no coverage.

Anyways...thanks for the regards!