Giant Explosion Rocks Texas Oil Refinery, Injuries Reported

A massive explosion and fire occurred at a major ExxonMobil refinery in Texas early Thursday, injuring at least four people, police said.

The explosion took place at around 1 a.m. on Thursday at the company’s Baytown, Texas, facility located along the Gulf of Mexico and roughly 25 miles east of Houston. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said three of the four people injured were evacuated from the refinery via life flight.

“Our emergency response teams continue to work to extinguish the fire at our Baytown Complex,” ExxonMobil Baytown said in a statement. “Our first priority is people in the community and in our facilities. Air monitoring continues along the fence line. Available information shows no adverse impact at this time.”

“We deeply regret any disruption or inconvenience that this incident may have caused the community,” the statement continued.

The company added that no shelter in place had yet been ordered.

The four injured individuals are in a stable condition, Rohan Davis, the facility’s manager, told reporters at a news conference. All other personnel have been accounted for, he said.

Davis promised that the company would conduct a “thorough” investigation into the cause of the explosion.

The century-old refinery employs about 7,000 people and is located on 3,400 acres of land, according to ExxonMobil. The facility is able to process 584,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

ExxonMobil didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.