New details have emerged of a May explosion and fire at a Chalmette refinery that shook homes miles away, with a regulatory report divulging where the blaze began and pollutants released in the incident.
The May 8 fire ignited around 12:51 p.m. in a section of the Chalmette Refining complex where impurities are removed from oil constituents to meet air quality standards, the report says. A reactor inside what is known as Retreater No. 1 lost “containment,” causing liquid hydrocarbons to ignite.
“Operations immediately began shutdown procedures and started to isolate the reactor and the heater,” company officials reported to state regulators…