Officials in Philadelphia confirmed an early morning fire at a 150-year-old refinery complex on Friday. A Philadelphia Fire Department spokeswoman confirmed there was a fire at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining Complex in south Philadelphia.
Just witnessed this explosion heading to Philly airport.. praying no one was hurt pic.twitter.com/S0fcN50HaT
— Jonathan Triboletti (@JonnyTriBBz6) June 21, 2019
Moments before the explosion pic.twitter.com/kZ7ButGVwM
— Jonathan Triboletti (@JonnyTriBBz6) June 21, 2019
CBS Philly KYW-TV reported the refinery has its own fire brigade. No injuries were reported and CBS Philly said the fire was contained by about 5:30 a.m. A shelter-in-place order for residents and businesses in the vicinity of the refinery was lifted a couple hours later, but officials asked people to avoid the immediate area due to the sheer amount of equipment and emergency vehicles on the scene.
The cause of the blaze was unclear. It was the second fire at the refinery in one month, following a June 10 fire in which no injuries were reported.
Multiple local bus routes were diverted because of the fire and sections of I-95 and I-76 were also closed for a while.
The complex refines about 335,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Philadelphia Energy Solutions says the oil refining complex is the largest on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.