Torrance Refinery

A brief fire at Mobil Oil Corp.'s Torrance refinery--the third accident in three weeks--injured two workers Friday and sent dense clouds of black smoke over the South Bay, company and fire officials said. The 3:21 p.m. fire came as Torrance officials opened a wide-ranging safety investigation at the sprawling facility, where there have been three other fires and two deaths since last November.

The Los Angeles district attorney's office announced Tuesday that it has no grounds to file criminal charges against Mobil Oil Corp. for the October, 1994, explosion and fire at the giant Mobil refinery in Torrance. After months of review, the office could find "no basis on which to bring a felony prosecution," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Macksoud, who looked into the explosion for the district attorney's environmental crimes/OSHA unit.

Mobil Oil Corp. was hit with nine citations and $67,005 in fines Friday by the state workplace safety agency Cal/OSHA, which asserted that lax practices at the oil giant's Torrance refinery preceded the thunderous October blast that injured 28 workers and sparked a community debate over refinery safety. After a five-month probe, Cal/OSHA investigators concluded that Mobil failed to properly inspect refinery equipment during a series of events before the Oct. 19 explosion.

A judge has upheld safeguards for Mobil Oil Corp. to follow as it introduces a safer form of a controversial chemical at its Torrance refinery. Retired Superior Court Judge Harry V. Peetris ruled Friday in favor of 11 conditions requested by Torrance officials to guide Mobil as it starts using a modified version of toxic hydrofluoric acid by a 1997 deadline. The changeover is a product of long-running concern in Torrance about the acid's safety after a string of refinery accidents.

Mobil Oil Corp. said Tuesday that it is cutting back gasoline production at its Torrance refinery 40% in order to repair a major anti-pollution system believed responsible for allowing 1.3 million pounds of health-threatening pollutants to escape into the atmosphere over the last year. Mobil said the work, which is expected to take about three weeks, will cost $1 million in repairs and lost profits. None of the refinery's 880 employees will be laid off.

An explosion ripped through a Mobil Oil Co. refinery in Torrance with earthquake-like force Tuesday, spewing balls of flame and metal about 300 feet into the early evening sky and blowing out the windows of several nearby homes. Despite the force of the blast--at 190th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard--which was felt several miles away, there were only two injuries to plant employees reported. One unidentified man suffered a minor eye wound and was treated at the 730-acre refinery.

Thousands of Mobil Oil Corp. documents classified as confidential during a landmark lawsuit should be reviewed to see whether they must be released under the state's Public Records Act, an environmental attorney argued Thursday.

The use of toxic hydrofluoric acid at a Torrance refinery has long fueled bitter debate about the potential effects on the thousands of people who live close to the refinery grounds. That debate may finally be resolved this month if Mobil Oil Corp. can prove to Torrance officials and residents that a multimillion-dollar research effort has produced a safer form of the chemical. At issue: whether Mobil can continue using "HF" at its Torrance refinery or must make a costly switch to sulfuric acid.

Alarms did not sound at Mobil Oil Co.'s Torrance refinery in June when a small amount of a highly toxic chemical was released and injured three contract workers, according to a Cal-OSHA review of the incident. The state worker safety office said an automatic sensor system designed to detect such spills was inactive when a cloud containing hydrogen fluoride escaped accidentally.

The Los Angeles district attorney's office announced Tuesday that it has no grounds to file criminal charges against Mobil Oil Corp. for the October, 1994, explosion and fire at the giant Mobil refinery in Torrance. After months of review, the office could find "no basis on which to bring a felony prosecution," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Macksoud, who looked into the explosion for the district attorney's environmental crimes/OSHA unit.

Mobil Oil Corp. and an independent contractor are appealing citations and fines imposed by the state workplace safety agency Cal/OSHA as a result of its investigation of an October explosion at Mobil's Torrance refinery. Voicing disagreement with some of Cal/OSHA's conclusions, Mobil officials are appealing a citation that says the company failed to inspect refinery equipment before the Oct. 19 explosion and fire that injured 28 workers.

An independent contractor working for Mobil Oil Corp. has been slapped with a citation and a $7,000 fine by a state watchdog agency, a penalty dwarfed by the heftier fines levied against Mobil in the wake of a Torrance refinery blast. The contractor, I.S.T. Mechanical Corp. of Carson, was cited Friday by Cal/OSHA as part of the workplace safety agency's investigation into the Oct. 19 explosion that injured 28 workers.

Mobil Oil Corp. was hit with nine citations and $67,005 in fines Friday by the state workplace safety agency Cal/OSHA, which asserted that lax practices at the oil giant's Torrance refinery preceded the thunderous October blast that injured 28 workers and sparked a community debate over refinery safety. After a five-month probe, Cal/OSHA investigators concluded that Mobil failed to properly inspect refinery equipment during a series of events before the Oct. 19 explosion.

Urged on by residents and businesses that are worried about safety, Torrance will seek tougher safeguards for use of a modified form of toxic hydrofluoric acid at the local Mobil Oil Corp. refinery. On a 4-3 vote, the Torrance City Council late Tuesday requested stiffer guidelines for phasing in a new version of "HF" that Mobil reports is safer than the traditional form of the acid.

In an ill-timed public relations snafu for Mobil Oil Corp., a gasoline spill at its Torrance refinery has been blamed for fume problems at Toyota's U.S. headquarters, the city's second-largest private employer. One building was evacuated at Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. and hundreds of other employees were advised to stay indoors briefly last week after some employees complained of fumes and discomfort.

When walls start shaking and dishes rattle ominously, Clifford Heise hurries outsidehis Torrance home to stare at the southern sky. "If it's red, you know it's Mobil," he says, "and you think, 'Quick, which way is the wind blowing?' " For hundreds who live near the mammoth Mobil Oil Corp. refinery in Torrance, the fear of earthquakes is overshadowed by a fear of toxic clouds.

Hydrogen fluoride, used by four Los Angeles County refineries to make unleaded gasoline, poses a significantly greater risk to public safety than a chemical used by other refineries, says a South Coast Air Quality Management District staff report released Wednesday. The report--which used computer modeling to study hypothetical spills of hydrogen fluoride--found that in a worst-case, uncontrolled spill, the highly toxic chemical would endanger human life and health over an area six times as large as its alternative, sulfuric acid.

The use of toxic hydrofluoric acid at a Torrance refinery has long fueled bitter debate about the potential effects on the thousands of people who live close to the refinery grounds. That debate may finally be resolved this month if Mobil Oil Corp. can prove to Torrance officials and residents that a multimillion-dollar research effort has produced a safer form of the chemical. At issue: whether Mobil can continue using "HF" at its Torrance refinery or must make a costly switch to sulfuric acid.