Arco’s Safety Record Good, Fire Dept. Says

Before a welder can light a torch at the Atlantic Richfield refinery in Carson, he needs a permit. Company inspectors, using special equipment, must certify that the area is free of flammable vapors and fluids.

The plant processes 210,000 barrels of oil of day--enough to turn the 750-acre plant and much of surrounding Carson into an inferno--and that sort of safety precaution is essential, according to Capt. John Maleta, the top hazardous materials expert with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Maleta, who was one of the first on the scene of Thursday’s refinery explosions, works out of county Fire Station 127, which is across Wilmington Avenue from the plant.

“We are here for a reason,” the still-grimy firefighter said.

Arco has a good safety record, he said. The Fire Department conducts annual safety inspections and makes sure that firefighters closest to the refinery take tours so they know the layout.

Jim Richey, Arco manager of refinery technology, said, “We do everything we think is needed.”

That includes monthly safety inspections and a lot more. The refineries of today operate with more automation and higher pressures and temperatures than earlier plants. The containment vessels are thicker and stronger to withstand the higher temperatures and pressures.

The training that refinery employees undergo is tougher too. One way of using employee expertise more efficiently was evident at Thursday’s fire.

While Arco firefighters worked alongside fire units from the county and several cities, employees from the nearby Shell Oil refinery manned a communications post on the sidelines that they had set up in a station wagon.

Cracking Unit

In the control room of the large cracking unit that exploded Thursday, a console of gauges and indicators measures operations. Arco officials are hoping that analysis of the readings will give a clue to what went wrong.

Like most refineries, Maleta said, the plant does not yet have automatic sensing equipment for vibration or vapors--telltale signs that could indicate something is amiss.

“This is coming down the road,” he said.