Crime & Safety
Benicia Port Fire: Officials Tour Site To Assess Damage, Plan Cleanup
Officials were on site to investigate the cause of the massive fire, evaluate the dock and determine the operational capacity at the port.
By Kiley Russell, Bay City News Foundation
BENICIA, CA — Officials with the city of Benicia and representatives from various state and local agencies were working Monday to assess the damage and begin planning cleanup efforts at the site of a Benicia Port fire that burned for roughly 24 hours over the weekend.
The fire broke out Saturday at 12:20 p.m. near the Amports terminal at the base of a silo used for petroleum coke, also called petcoke, an oil refining byproduct.
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The fire then traveled along a conveyer belt to the dock, where it began burning along the underside of the pier, "which is constructed of large creosote-coated timber covered by thick asphalt," according to city officials.
Fire crews from several jurisdictions and fire boats from San Francisco, Oakland, Port Chicago, Southern Marin, Tiburon and Redwood City were able to contain the four-alarm blaze by 9:40 a.m. Sunday and extinguish it by about 12:20 p.m. the same day, city officials said.
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In addition to fire crews, representatives from several other agencies responded to the fire, including Solano County Office of Emergency Services, Solano County Department of Environmental Health, California Office of Emergency Services, California Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Coast Guard, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, as well as employees from the Valero Refinery and Amports.
Many of those same agencies will likely be involved in the damage assessment and cleanup planning now that the fire is out.
Officials were doing walk-throughs Monday to investigate the cause of the fire, evaluate the condition of the dock and determine the "operational capacity at the port," said Benicia spokesperson Teri Davena.
On Saturday, San Francisco Baykeeper released aerial drone video footage that it was able to capture while the fire was burning.
The footage shows the large fire, a massive plume of black smoke billowing above the Carquinez Strait, the badly damaged pier, what appears to be fire debris in the water, and fire crews battling the blaze from both the landside and from boats.
"Baykeeper's thoughts and prayers are with first responders battling to contain the fire, workers at the port, and with the residents of Benicia who may be exposed to additional air and water pollution," Baykeeper executive director Sejal Choksi-Chugh said in a news release Saturday.
"It is clear that the Bay will suffer as well, and we will be following up with responsible agencies to determine the extent of the pollution damage done to the Bay," Choksi-Chugh said.
In March, Baykeeper, an environmental watchdog group, filed a Clean Water Act lawsuit against Amports and Valero for allegedly discharging petcoke into the Carquinez Strait.
A woman who answered the phone at Amports' Benicia office declined to comment and an Amports manager didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, nor did a Valero spokesperson.
RELATED COVERAGE:
- Benicia Port Fire Extinguished; Water Clean-Up Efforts Underway
- Huge Fire Erupts At Benicia Port, Some Evacuate
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