A BP spokesperson told Reuters that the company suspects "leaking fumes from a crude unit may have caused the ignition in another unit at the facility."
This same person added that workers at the facility had just "finished a maintenance turnaround" a few weeks prior after having been offline for some time. (Related: Remember back in the summer when several Texas oil refineries shut down under similarly suspicious circumstances?)
According to reports, the BP-Husky Toledo refinery processes up to 160,000 barrels of crude oil per day, providing the Midwest with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, asphalt and various other products.
It is not yet known if the incident, which is still under investigation, will affect gas prices throughout the Midwest.
Is America's energy infrastructure under attack?
Around 6:30pm local time on the day of the fire, an "explosion" reportedly struck the BP-Husky Toledo facility – watch below:
Per BP: The refinery can process up to?160,000 barrels of crude oil?each day, providing the Midwest with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, asphalt, and other products. https://t.co/dmX2Gg3Ens
— Josh Croup 13abc (@JoshCroup) September 20, 2022
Another video of the fire was captured from a vehicle:
Video from a viewer shows an Oregon BP refinery in flames Monday night.
Per BP: The refinery can process up to?160,000 barrels of crude oil?each day, providing the Midwest with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, asphalt, and other products. V
Video credit: Ryan Rohm pic.twitter.com/jf98uAa93N
— News 5 Cleveland (@WEWS) September 21, 2022
At least two people were seriously burned by the flames.
"He said it was like some sort of explosion," said Chris Howard, whose father works at the plant and was there the night of the incident. Howard says he received a phone call around 7pm from a friend who also works at the facility as a security guard.
"He told me there was just a big rumble at the refinery, lots of fire everywhere," Howard added. "He said it's the worst he's seen. Lots of people injured."
When operating at full capacity, the BP-Husky Toledo refinery can produce upwards of 3.8 million gallons of gasoline, 1.3 million gallons of diesel fuel, and 600,000 gallons of jet fuel per day.
"First they came for the food processing plants ...," wrote a commenter at Zero Hedge, the reference being the late German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller's famous poem about the Holocaust.
"Another sabotage 'coincidence,'" wrote another.
"Food processing plants, Tesla battery factories, and now oil refineries," added someone else. "I have to say that I'm pretty old and I don't remember this much stuff blowing up on the U.S. mainland ever. There is an ill wind blowing."
If there are enemies foreign and / or domestic that want to hurt our country with an easy alibi, the suspicious destruction of key infrastructure assets like oil refineries would be the way to go, said another.
"To be fair, people are getting dumber, which allows for more manufacturing and maintenance defects," expressed someone else about what is happening.
"And then there's the demoralization / quiet quitting phenomenon. When someone in the bowels of Google or Netflix quits, your page has to be refreshed. When someone at a refinery quits, stuff burns."
Others echoed these sentiments, also bringing up the railroad strike and the issues surrounding that potential disaster for the economy and supply chain.
"The railroads are in shambles and they can't hire enough people," someone wrote about this. "It was the vaccine mandates and older people who walked off with their pensions."
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