As expected, hundreds of pissed-off Richmond residents flooded a town hall meeting last night, where they were reportedly more raging than the black plumes of toxic smoke that blanketed the community Monday night.
Residents have every right to be furious, and Chevron officials will be the first to admit it; the company has apologized profusely for the three-alarm refinery fire that could be seen from San Francisco's Coit Tower. More than 160,000 residents were ordered to stay indoors and duct tape their windows as firefighters worked for many, many hours to put out the blaze.
Black soot still covers parts of the community, and residents are still complaining of eye irritation and respiratory problems -- and Chevron is willing to pay for it all.
Knowing this didn't placate the 500-plus people last night, who would still like to know "what are they breathing?" Here's a sampling of some angry residents' comments/questions that made us think:
While everyone was busy reading the news of Richmond's refinery fire last night, a blaze started here in San Francisco's Ingleside neighborhood early this morning, destroying 10 businesses and blocking Muni lines throughout the afternoon.
The call came in at 5:46 a.m. after residents spotted flames near the 1500 block of Ocean Avenue. Firefighters worked for nearly two hours trying to control the four-alarm blaze, which caused more than $3 million in damages, said Mindy Talmadge, spokeswoman for the Fire Department.
Nobody was hurt, but two firefighters were treated for minor injures, she said.
"It doesn't appear to be suspicious, but it's still under investigation," Talmadge told us.
The good news is the Chevron fire is out and the order for East Bay folks to remain indoors has been lifted. The bad news is, there's a good chance gasoline prices are probably going to make us gag today.
Chevron's 240,000-barrel-a-day refinery has reportedly closed down
production units after the fire broke out last night, burning God only knows how many gallons of diesel fuel late into the night.
"The market will take a pop first thing in the morning,
ahead of any action by Chevron," David Hackett, the president of Stillwater Associates in Irvine, an independent fuel consultant, told Bloomberg News. "If Chevron comes out as a buyer [today], then the market will continue up."
The contractor responsible for nicking the PG&E gas line yesterday in San Bruno sent his apologizes to the city and residents who were evacuated during the gas leak and vowed to implement better safety measures.
Firefighters say it was welding work that started the massive four-alarm fire that destroyed Pier 29 last month.
Mindy Talmadge, spokeswoman for the Fire Department, said workers were welding a ladder to the outside of the building when sparks flew through a crack in the concrete, igniting the fire.
The blaze started just before 2 p.m. on June 20, shutting down traffic and trolleys along the Embarcadero for hours while dozens of firefighters worked to extinguish the flames.
An unidentified man was killed this morning in a two-alarm fire that started on the bottom floor of an apartment building in the Western Addition.
Mindy Talmadge, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Fire Department, said the fire started at about 9:50 a.m. at the three-story, 12-unit building, located at 65 Cleary Court. The fire rapidly spread to the second floor where the male victim was at the time. The fire, which spread to the third floor, completely destroyed two apartment units, fire officials said.
A handful of residents evacuated the building, and only two were suffering from smoke inhalation. No other injuries were reported, Talmadge told us.
Mandela Parkway in Oakland, agents with the ATF were able to determine exactly where and how the fire began. However, Special Agent Christian Hoffman said he wouldn't give reporters those details until someone was arrested.
"Only two people know what started the fire: the
ATF and our partners, and the suspect that committed the crime," Hoffman told the Chron. "We don't want to reveal anything at this point."
After digging through rubble and ash from the Pier 29 fire that broke out Wednesday afternoon, the San Francisco Fire Department says it has identified two potential causes that sparked the blaze: an electric malfunction, or a glitch in worker equipment.
Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said before the fire broke out, workers "were trying to use an electrical source in that area [where the fire ignited] and were having difficulty with that, and so they instead decided to use a generator."
Firefighters still don't know what caused the four-alarm fire that ripped through the roof of Pier 29 yesterday afternoon, stopping traffic along the Embarcadero, and hypnotizing tourists near the Wharf.
What they do know is that it caused more than $2 million in damages, SFFD spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge told the press.
What began as a two-alarm fire at 2 p.m. on Wednesday quickly escalated into a four-alarm blaze, as flames spit from the top of the pier. The blaze burned for nearly two hours as a team of firefighters worked to control it.
