EXXON MOBIL REFINERY IN TORRANCE DAMAGED AFTER EXPLOSION

Wednesday, February 18, 2015 09:09PM


TORRANCE, Calif. (KABC) --

An explosion at the Exxon Mobil refinery caused structural damage and was felt for miles around Torrance on Wednesday, but there were no major injuries.

The blast happened in a processing unit at the refinery in the 3700 block of 190th Street at 8:50 a.m. The explosion was followed by a ground fire, which was quickly knocked down.

The explosion was so strong that it registered as a 1.7-magnitude earthquake on a nearby seismometer operated by Caltech and USGS.

Employees say they first noticed a smell and then heard and felt the explosion. 

Rodney Payne was part of an electrical crew working near the processing building that exploded.

"I was maybe 100 yards away from the explosion," Payne said. "I can see the billowing of the smoke and the fumes coming, so I just located my guys and told them that we gotta go."

Exxon Mobil said in a statement that four contractors were transported to Long Beach Medical Center for minor injuries, and everyone was accounted for.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders this week issued a new report that provides a fresh glimpse into the far-reaching corporate tax avoidance strategies of large and profitable companies represented by the Business Roundtable, including what he calls the "legalized tax fraud” of sheltering profits in offshore tax havens. The report shows for the first time how more than half of the companies represented by the Business Roundtable are collectively holding more than $1 trillion in profits in offshore tax haven countries where money is not subject to U.S. taxes. A number of huge corporations – including General Electric, Boeing, Duke Energy and Verizon – not only have paid nothing in federal income tax in recent years, they received refunds from the IRS.“Instead of sheltering profits in the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens, the largest corporations in this country must pay their fair share of taxes so that our country has the revenue we need to rebuild America and reduce the deficit,” Bernie said. "At a time when corporations are making record-breaking profits, while the middle class is disappearing and senior poverty is on the rise, the last thing we should be doing is giving huge tax breaks to profitable corporations that don’t need it.” Bernie will soon reintroduce legislation to crack down on corporate tax avoidance by making sure that profits shifted to offshore tax haven subsidiaries are taxed at the top U.S. corporate tax rate.

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