The Santa Barbara County Fire department successfully extinguished a fire at a Greka Oil and Gas facility in Orcutt on Oct. 23, where an injection station pump was reportedly fully engulfed in flames.
The fire was called in as a vegetation burn at about 10:30 a.m., according to the county fire department’s public information officer, David Zaniboni, causing the department to respond with a full vegetation team. The first engine company on scene, at 5200 Dominion Road, handled the fire and canceled the vegetation response in route.
The pump, Zaniboni said, was used to treat water and oil.
While no other facilities or properties were damaged, Zaniboni said the blaze caused heavy smoke in the area. A fire investigator and the Santa Barbara County Hazardous Materials Unit are investigating the cause of the fire. Deputy Director of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department Susan Klein-Rothschild said it appears an employee’s welding spark is to blame for the fire’s ignition.
The spark hit nearby material, which quickly caught fire, Klein-Rothschild said. The Hazardous Materials Unit plans to do a series of lab tests on the material. The investigation is ongoing, Klein-Rothschild said.
Greka Oil has been under scrutiny before in Santa Barbara County. In 2011, federal and state agencies filed a civil lawsuit against Greka, accusing the company of violating environmental laws while handling more than 21 oil spills in the county in a five-year period.
Greka could not be reached for comment by press time.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 2, 2017.