Fire Hits Crown Refinery

HOUSTON -- Fire broke out yesterday at a Crown Central Petroleum Corp. refinery in Pasadena, Texas, but nobody was hurt and the fire was quickly contained, a company spokesman said.

The fire, caused by a leak of liquefied petroleum gas, occurred as the company was completing scheduled maintenance work on multiple processing units at the plant, Reuters reported.

Spokesman Bruce Hicks said it was too early to say whether the fire would cause delays in returning those units to service.

The entire 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery was closed as a precaution after a larger explosion and fire at a liquefied petroleum gas unit on Nov. 23 as the maintenance work started.

Crown, which operates approximately 300 convenience stores, said last week it had repaired all damage caused by the fire and restarted the refinery's crude distillation, coking and reforming units on Jan. 3, allowing it to refine crude again.