© Reuters.
PARIS (Reuters) -A fire broke out at Esso-Exxon Mobil’s Port Jerome-Gravenchon refinery in northern France on Monday and in-house firefighters were working to bring the blaze under control, the company said.
The refinery, located in Normandy on the banks of the Seine river, has a capacity of 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is amongst the biggest in France. It supplies the Ile-de-France region, where the capital city Paris is located.
It was too early to estimate the fire’s impact on the refinery’s production, a spokesperson said.
“The fire is being dealt with by the refinery’s own fire brigade, there was no need for external fire fighters,” the spokesperson told Reuters.
The fire broke out at one of the refinery’s two distillery towers.
Air quality in the local area had not been affected, the company added
Three people had been treated by medical teams on site and two were sent to a local hospital, the spokesperson added.
Video footage on social media showed a tower of black smoke rising above the site.
