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Fire near oil facility sparks small explosion, rattling windows in Signal Hill
Environment Nov 13, 2020
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File photo of Long Beach Fire Department Ladder Truck Engine 1 in Long Beach Monday, Feb. 24, 2019. Photo by Thomas R Cordova. Long Beach fire crews quickly extinguished an electrical fire that sparked near an oil tank farm in Signal Hill Wednesday morning, officials said.
The fire caused a small explosion that alarmed residents near East 20th Street and Redondo Avenue. Derek Schulz told the Post he heard the explosion around 7:45 in the morning. “It was a loud explosion,” he said. “[The explosion] rattled the windows—woke up to it.”
Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Brian Fisk said the blast happened when a test station became pressurized, which spewed oil onto a nearby electrical panel, sparking an electrical fire.
Long Beach fire crews doused the flames within 30 minutes, Fisk said. “There was no environmental hazard,” he said. Crews shut down northbound traffic on Redondo Avenue as they worked to contain the flames, but it was quickly reopened, Fisk said.
Just last week, another explosion blew out the windows of a Signal Hill home after an apparent gas leak. Two residents were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. There were no injuries reported in Wednesday’s fire.