St. John Parish Saturday afternoon update regarding Marathon fire
Published 3:07 pm Saturday, August 26, 2023
- A smoke plume originating from the Marathon Petroleum Garyville facility was seen across the community Friday, August 25. Photo by Wilfred Robert.
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Marathon Petroleum personnel and local emergency responders continue monitoring and responding to a fire at our Garyville, Louisiana, refinery.
• While much of the fire has been extinguished, firefighters continue fire suppression activities to address flare-ups. As a result of these occasional flare-ups, black smoke may be visible from the refinery property from time to time. Fire suppression will continue until firefighting professionals are confident there is no risk of additional fire.
• All air monitoring has and continues to indicate non-detectable air quality impacts to the community. Air monitoring is being conducted in the community by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and a third-party contract company.
• Throughout the incident, the fire has remained within the containment dike area on the refinery’s property.
• Fire suppression activities have been conducted by trained Marathon Petroleum responders from Garyville and several of our out-of-state refinery locations along with local support provided by St. John the Baptist Parish emergency responders and five industrial companies throughout the region. Additionally, 12 companies and local organizations have contributed firefighting equipment. We are extremely grateful for the skill and dedication of these firefighting professionals, and the support from their sponsoring organizations and companies.
• As of 7 p.m. CT yesterday, Aug. 25, Marathon set up a community assistance hotline to help members of the community impacted by the incident. The toll-free number is (866) 601-5880.
• As always, our main priority is to ensure the safety of our employees and contractors, our neighbors within the surrounding community, and first responders, and to limit environmental impact.
• An investigation will be conducted to determine the cause of the incident.
• Out of an abundance of caution, the facility began a shutdown process of units closest to the fire yesterday morning. As the fire-suppression efforts continue to progress, return to normal operations will be evaluated, with safety as our top priority. I
