4 Felled by Fumes in Mobil Fire

Four workers at Mobil’s troubled Torrance refinery were hospitalized briefly on Wednesday after breathing toxic sulfur dioxide fumes released during a minor fire.

The refinery has had a series of explosions, fires and accidents in the last 18 months and is the subject of an intensive worker-safety inspection by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The city of Torrance is also spending $88,000 to examine whether the refinery poses a risk to surrounding areas.

In addition, as a result of an explosion and fire in November that led to the release of 100 pounds of hydrofluoric acid, the South Coast Air Management District created a task force on the use of highly toxic substance by refineries and industrial facilities.

“The ongoing saga, yes, the ongoing saga,” said Torrance Fire Marshal Denny Haas when asked about Wednesday’s fire at Mobil.

Haas said the fire, in the facility’s sulfur recovery plant, released about 50 pounds of sulfur dioxide. Mobil fire crews smothered the fire with steam and nitrogen before Torrance firefighters arrived.

The cause of the fire is unknown, Haas said.

Workers Building Tank

Plant manager Wyman Robb said the blaze started about 11 a.m. near a tank that four employees of a contracting firm, Chicago Bridge and Iron, were constructing.

“They got a whiff (of toxic gas),” Robb said.

Three of the workers escaped with minimal exposure, Robb said, but one breathed more of the gas, which irritates the lungs.

A representative of Little Company of Mary Hospital, where the men were taken, identified them as Manuel Reyes, 41, of Bell; Lewis Wright, 35, of Redondo Beach; Michael Hanson, 27, of Inglewood, and Jesse Campos, 43, of Ontario. They were released after three hours’ observation.

In the wake of the fire, OSHA immediately dispatched inspectors to make a report.

With the federal and city safety probes both under way at the same time, so many safety investigators are swarming over the refinery that city officials have expressed concern that the OSHA inspection will interfere with the city’s safety audit.

The solution, according to city officials, is a bit of congressional arm-twisting.

In a Sept. 23 memo to the City Council, Assistant City Manager Albert Ng said the city will ask Rep. Daniel E. Lungren, (R-Long Beach), whose district includes Torrance, to intercede with OSHA to get the federal investigation “temporarily scaled down . . . in the event of any further delays” in the city’s inquiry.

City officials first became concerned when reviewing an interim report from the city’s consultant, Gage-Babcock & Associates Inc. The report said Mobil officials told the consultants that “delays in our work will be inevitable due to the shortage of Mobil personnel available to accompany our engineers during field work at the refinery” because of the OSHA inspection.

Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert, who has been chafing at the slow pace of the city’s investigation of Mobil, said that after reading the report she told city officials: “Let’s work through a congressional office and make sure this is a priority.”

Joe Kirkbride, a spokesman for OSHA’s regional office in San Francisco, said OSHA officials had not been contacted by Torrance city officials but typically try to work closely with local authorities.

“I guess they are anticipating we will say, ‘Hell no, get out of town,’ he said. “. . . We got enough problems out there without getting into a fist fight with the city.”

Geissert acknowledged that the city had not contacted OSHA before turning to Lungren for help.

Robb said: “So far we have been able to meet the requirements of both groups. We have brought in a couple of extra people. We have been working long hours. We have been working hard to maintain that. There will be cases where we have to ask people to wait a day or a couple days or a week.”