A fire broke out at a refinery operated by BP in Toledo, Ohio with two people died, according to a spokeswoman for the company.
The refinery was shut down soon after the fire broke out, the spokeswoman also said, as quoted by NBC News.
First responders are at the scene, working to put the fire out. The cause remains to yet be determined, media reported, citing emergency service officials. Reuters noted in its report that the refinery had just come out of maintenance.
The facility has a capacity of close to 160,000 bpd of crude oil and is co-owned by BP and Canada’s Cenovus. Last month, Cenovus agreed to buy BP’s 50-percent share in the facility and become its sole owner. The Canadian company inherited the stake from Husky, with which it merged last year.
The Toledo facility also suffered a fire in November last year, and an explosion in January this year. Neither of the incidents resulted in any injuries.
The Toledo refinery employs more than 840 people and can produce 3.8 million gallons of gasoline, 1.3 million gallons of diesel, and 600,000 gallons of jet fuel, according to the company’s fact sheet on the facility.
This is the second refinery fire in a BP-operated facility in the last two months. In late August, a fire broke out at the Whiting refinery in Indiana and sparked fears of a gasoline shortage across four states just as fuel prices were on a recovery curve after soaring earlier this year to all-time highs.
The electrical fire led to the shutdown of several units at the facility and prompted a declaration of emergency across four states, including Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
All four states get their gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from the Whiting refinery. The 435,000-bpd refinery, which is the largest in the Midwest, restarted a week later.
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