Worker injured, houses rattled, 800K in damages in refinery blast south of Los Angeles

Worker injured houses rattled in blast near LA

PARAMOUNT, Calif. — An explosion at a Los Angeles-area oil refinery rattled nearby houses and caused hundreds of thousands in damage, but left just one worker with minor injuries and required no evacuations at the plant or the surrounding neighborhood, authorities said Thursday.

The blast occurred as workers were re-lighting a pair of 100-foot-high furnaces late Wednesday night at Paramount Petroleum in the city of Paramount 15 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, said county fire Captain Roy Ancira.

“There was a build up of gas, which caused the explosion,” Ancira said.

One man was injured and taken to a hospital.

“He was really shaken up, but had no major injuries,” Ancira said.

No fire resulted from the blast, and there were no leaking fumes that would require evacuations, Ancira said.

Damages to the furnaces and surrounding structure totaled an estimated $800,000, he said.