News Brief

June 18, 2025

Flames engulf Houston-area refinery for third time in two years

A fire that broke out at a Marathon Petroleum refinery in Texas City, Texas, was the refinery’s third since May 2023.

State and federal agencies are investigating the cause of the Saturday fire at Marathon’s Galveston Bay Refinery, according to the Galveston County Daily News. The fire led to a nearly two-hour shelter-in-place order from local authorities, who reported no injuries.

The refinery experienced similar outbreaks twice in 2023. In May that year, a fire that burned for about four hours killed one worker and hospitalized two more.

In December 2023, another fire broke out at the refinery, the fourth largest in the U.S. by capacity, resulting in no injuries.

State records show Marathon received at least 40 notices of environmental violations at the facility from January 2020 through June 2024, when the latest records were available.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality last fined Marathon for violations at the facility in 2023 over the 2021 leak of nearly 35,000 pounds of air pollutants known as volatile organic compounds from a hole in the roof of a tank. The agency fined the company $14,250.

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