Mylar Balloon Causes Refinery Upset

From City News Service

A fireball that shot out of a smokestack at the ExxonMobil Refinery in Torrance Thursday morning was caused by a momentary power problem that prompted a plant restart. A fire captain has said more hydrocarbon flaring may be seen during the next 24 hours.
  
The power problem was caused by a Mylar balloon that got caught in power lines, according to Torrance Fire Capt. Steve Deuel.

Said Lauren Bartlett, a Southern California Edison spokesperson, "SCE did not have any outages in the Torrance area today. However, at 9:16 a.m., a Mylar balloon came in contact with two transmission lines in the Torrance area and this resulted in a momentary voltage fluctuation,'' she said. "We do not have reports of any service interruptions to residential customers. SCE is continuing to investigate the incident.''

Hundreds of workers were temporarily evacuated from the refinery in the
3700 block of 190th St., near Prairie Ave. after the problem was reported,
Deuel said.

"Torrance fire hazmat conducted monitoring around the nearby area, and
found zero readings of any off-site airborne products,'' said Deuel. "However, several transient, off-site odor complaints were received.

"The process of restarting the refinery is complicated, and intermittent flaring (burnoff) may occur over the next 12-24 hours," he said.
  
The electrical problem apparently occurred in SCE equipment along Yukon
Avenue.

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