Oct. 7, 2025 7 AM PT
To the editor: I’m a third-generation South Bay resident. My father was raised in El Segundo. His father labored for Commonplace Oil for years, and my father and my uncles labored summer time jobs on the refinery. Commonplace Oil, now Chevron, appeared to have been a accountable group member.
I grew up a block from Commonplace Oil’s Rosecrans Ave. boundary. Certainly one of my earlier childhood recollections was the time lightning struck an oil storage tank throughout Rosecrans. That fireside burnt for days, the burning tank spewing black, sooty smoke.
How a lot lung injury did that trigger to residents, notably youngsters and the aged? However not many questioned the hurt to the group Commonplace Oil may need been inflicting within the Nineteen Sixties.
Nonetheless, final week, as we heard, felt and noticed what appeared to be a terrifying precursor to the apocalypse from our home seven blocks away, the query of doable hurt and danger from a significant oil producer nestled between residential communities and Los Angeles Worldwide Airport grew to become extra pressing (“‘I thought we got nuked or something.’ Massive explosion, fire rocks El Segundo refinery,” Oct. 3). We have been lucky the winds have been gentle and blowing off the ocean, as I worry what may need occurred if the winds have been out of the east.
Nonetheless, after studying a Los Angeles Occasions article in regards to the explosion that listed the numerous infractions by Chevron that our communities have been uncovered to over current years (“Chevron’s El Segundo refinery has a history of safety and environmental violations,” Oct. 4), I query the security of permitting main refineries to stay in extremely populated areas, particularly when it appears the refineries get little or no greater than a slap on the wrist regardless of potential risks of the incidents.
This isn’t a political difficulty. This is a matter of the well being and security of the encompassing inhabitants. Refineries, or different harmful industries, shouldn’t be in a position to function in a approach that will trigger hurt to others.
Arduous questions as to the trigger and fixes have to be requested. If the federal authorities dodges this central obligation, the state should step in. Refineries shouldn’t get a clean verify.
Kathryn Grey, Manhattan Seaside
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To the editor: Whereas the strictest security protocols are in fact a should, we residents of El Segundo and Manhattan Seaside simply should stay with the truth that a gas refinery is a unstable place that even probably the most intricate laws can’t utterly mitigate (“El Segundo was born by oil. The massive refinery fire leaves residents rattled,” Oct. 3).
As a longtime resident of Manhattan Seaside who lives about half a mile from the refinery, I nonetheless keep in mind what occurred in September of 1968. Lightning struck a big floor oil storage tank on the facility (then Commonplace Oil), inflicting the oil to ignite in an explosion and hearth. Firefighters used water and foam to no avail, so they only determined to let it burn itself out. The burnout lasted 13 days, throughout which evening was become day by the excessive flames and day was become evening by the thick black smoke.
This was a freak act of nature that no security guidelines may have prevented. For us residing close by the refinery, it’s a part of the deal, however I might by no means wish to stay anyplace else.
Pete Skacan, Manhattan Seaside
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To the editor: If state lawmakers wanted an indication that their bill boosting oil drilling to appease refineries was ill-advised, they obtained it final Thursday evening within the type of towering flames.
The blast and inferno was at least the fifth fire at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery since 2016, a part of an extended historical past of refinery incidents in California.
Communities know this all too properly, however lawmakers appear to have forgotten that entrenching oil and fuel manufacturing is disastrous for individuals’s well being, the setting and the financial system. Whilst air high quality officers reported spikes of harmful chemical compounds from the fireplace, economists warned it will spike fuel costs.
Each time our leaders cave to the unstable, hazardous fossil gas business, Californians undergo for it. It’s time to hurry the transition to scrub vitality and get off oil and fuel for good.
Christina Scaringe, Sacramento
This author is California local weather coverage director on the Heart for Organic Variety.
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To the editor: I grew up in Manhattan Seaside within the Fifties. I lived just some miles from the Chevron refinery in El Segundo. Even then, our nickname for El Segundo was “El Stinko.” Over time, that they had a number of large fires and many unhealthy odors. Sadly, nothing new right here.
Mike Reardon, Fallbrook
