‘Running From the Scene’

Torrance firefighters will testify at trial that when they showed up at the refinery gates to respond to this explosion, there was no one to be found because everyone in the refinery, including the operators of the unit, were running as fast as they could away from the scene of the explosion. This abandonment of their positions literally left no one at Mobil to take corrective steps or to provide information to the firefighters as to what was involved in the fire and how best they should fight it. . . . Two of the firefighters will testify that a Mobil supervisor ran up to them as they were setting up their hoses and frantically told them to redirect their water streams toward a particular process unit. The supervisor told them that the unit contained hydrofluoric acid and if they didn’t cool down the unit in three minutes it would blow up and “everyone within three miles will be dead.” The supervisor then told the firefighters that he was “getting the hell out of here,” and ran as fast as he could away from the unit.