Chevron Richmond Refinery crude unit fire was contained to small area in #4Crude unit, is not expected to affect production, and only one worker suffered first degree burns to his neck (but was released after treatment). This continues to show that the most dangerous time in a refinery is during the shutdown or startup periods of a maintenance shutdown/turnaround. A significant number of the annual refinery accidents, fires and injuries can be linked to this period. I believe the number of accidents is occurring because refineries continue to outsource these functions to construction companies where safety procedures are not as rigid as the refinery and where work can also be subcontracted to smaller companies that may not even have the management layer effectively trained. Valero and a growing number of other refining companies are the exception to this.
