Explosion at Marathon Petroleum in Garyville, LA Injures 1 Worker

At about 9:20 am on Monday, an explosion at Marathon Petroleum rocked the community of Garyville, Louisiana. One contract worker* was injured in the incident, and the blast could be heard for miles.

After the explosion, part of the refinery was put under a shelter-in-place order, according to a spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The department had four teams of responders monitoring air quality in the community as a precaution, but no shelter-in-place or evacuation orders were issued for schools, homes, or businesses in the Garyville area.

Local authorities issued a warning and closed roads around the area of west Airline Highway and Marathon Avenue after the explosion and fire and lifted it at 10:25 am.

Emergency crews were able to contain the fire at the Garyville refinery, and one worker was taken to a local medical facility for evaluation and treatment, but no details have been released about the worker’s condition.

According to a statement by a Marathon Petroleum spokesperson, the fire has been controlled and all workers have been accounted for. Marathon has not released a statement detailing exactly where at the facility the explosion occurred and what caused it in the first place.

The Garyville refinery is one of the largest in the country. Owned and operated by Marathon Petroleum and located between Baton Rouge and New Orleans along the Mississippi River, the facility has a capacity of 578,000 barrels per day. This is equivalent to 24,276,000 gallons of crude oil.

In our experience as Louisiana refinery accident attorneys, explosions like this don't "just happen." They can be traced to defective machinery, aging equipment, lax safety standards, and other factors that could have been prevented. The cause of the Marathon Petroleum explosion and fire is currently unknown, but we will continue to follow this story as it develops.

News Articles on the Marathon Petroleum Explosion:

• Explosion, fire rock marathon Petroleum oil refinery in Louisiana; 1 worker injured
• One person injured in explosion, fire at Marathon oil refinery in Garyville

*According to an update from Marathon, six workers were reportedly injured in the Garyville plant explosion. Three were treated at the site and three were transported to the hospital for treatment.