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The Nustar Fire was a fuel storage fire and wildfire at the
The Nustar Fire was a fuel storage fire and wildfire at the NuStar Energy
NuStar Energy L.P. is a subsidiary of Sunoco LP, and formerly was a publicly traded master limited partnership. The company is one of the largest independent liquids terminal and pipeline operators in the nation. NuStar owns 8,700 miles of pipelin ...
facility in Crockett, California
Crockett (formerly Crockettville) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County, in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay sub-region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. The population w ...
, which started about 2:00 PM on 15 October 2019. By 9:00 PM the same evening, the fire was contained, though two tanks of ethanol
Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...
were still burning. About 15 acres burned.
The ATF
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention ...
and other agencies investigated the cause of the fuel tank explosions. There is some speculation that the event might have been related to a nearby earthquake 15 hours earlier.
On 22 October it was reported that the Nustar Fire was provoking opposition to an expansion of the Phillips 66
The Phillips 66 Company is an American Multinational corporation, multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Company, assisted in establishing ...
refinery tank farm adjacent to the NuStar facility, in Rodeo
Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqu ...
.
As of 25 October 2019 (10 days after the fire), two ships delivering imported ethanol were stuck without a place to unload, since the NuStar terminal was the only terminal in the San Francisco area set up to receive ethanol, and was shut down by the state while they investigated the fire.
On 27 October, another fire, the Sky Fire, threatened Crockett, burning another 150 acres along Cummings Skyway. Most of the town and the NuStar facility were evacuated. The Sky Fire was extinguished on 28 October.
According to the 30-day interim report on the Nustar fire submitted to the Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs by Shore Terminals LLC:
A final report from the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District was completed and presented May 21, 2021. It concluded the first tank explosion was probably caused by an electric fault that ignited an ethanol vapor air mixture in the headspace of the tank. Improper grounding was observed as well as a pallet removed from the vapor line PRV after a 2012 incident. The second tank was damaged by debris from the first explosion.
References
{{California wildfires Fires in California 2019 California wildfires October 2019 in the United States 2019 fires in the United States 2019 in California Contra Costa County, California Wildfires in Contra Costa County, California