LOS ANGELES — A massive fire erupted on Oct. 2 at an oil refinery in Southern California, authorities and officials said, producing giant flames visible across the Los Angeles basin.

At about 9:32 p.m. local time, a fire was spotted at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo, located about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles, the El Segundo Police Department told USA TODAY. Multiple fire departments worked to suppress the blaze, police said.

"There is no call to evacuate residences or businesses in the city of El Segundo at this time," police said, adding that the fire was later contained. Nearby roads and highways were closed to allow fire crews access to the area.

USA TODAY reached out to the El Segundo Fire Department for comment. The cause of the fire remains unclear.

A Chevron spokesperson told USA TODAY that its fire department personnel, including emergency crews from the city of El Segundo and Manhattan Beach, responded to the refinery blaze.

"All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries," Chevron said in a statement. "No evacuation orders for area residents have been put in place by emergency response agencies monitoring the incident, and no exceedances have been detected by the facilities fence line monitoring system."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass were briefed on the incident. The governor's office said on X that it was coordinating with local and state agencies to protect the surrounding community and ensure public safety.

Bass said on social media that there was no known impact to the Los Angeles International Airport.

The El Segundo facility was built in 1911 and is the largest producing oil refinery on the West Coast, according to Chevron. The refinery processes more than 276,000 barrels of crude per day.

'I thought we got nuked or something'

Mark Rogers told the Los Angeles Times that he was playing in his weekly adult soccer league at a park a few miles away from the Chevron refinery. The game was cancelled minutes after it started due to the smoke caused by the fire.

“I thought we got nuked or something,” said Rogers, the newspaper reported.

Keith Mohr, of Manhattan Beach, told the Times that he has lived by the Chevron refinery for more than two decades. After he felt a blast, Mohr instructed his wife to grab their dogs and head to the car.

"This was 300-foot flames," said Mohr, the news organization reported. "I didn’t know if a plane crashed or there was an earthquake or both."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Large fire erupts at Chevron refinery near Los Angeles

Reporting by Charles Ventura, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect