Fire at Saint John Irving Oil Refinery extinguished

A fire at the Irving Oil Refinery that produced a large plume of smoke in east Saint John on Monday morning has been extinguished.

The Saint John Fire Department was called to the scene shortly after 9 a.m. after reports of a product leak at the site.

"No injuries have been reported, and there is no threat to the surrounding community," the department said in a statement.

Fire crews, working with the refinery's response team, helped contained and extinguish the fire, the statement said

"The situation is now under control."

Irving Oil posted a notice on its Facebook page calling the fire an "operational incident" and said things have returned to normal.

"An operational incident occurred at our Saint John refinery this morning, Monday, June 30, which activated our emergency alarm. The situation was isolated, contained and operations are normal. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

Irving Oil has not responded to a request for an interview about the fire, or provided more details based on questions sent by e-mail.

Gordon Dalzell, an environmental activist and area resident, said his wife heard what she thought was the emergency alarm system at the refinery shortly after 9 and then heard fire trucks in the area.

Dalzell said he called the main phone line at the refinery to find out what was going on and he was told there was a fire but was reassured everything was OK.

"There was a small fire and everything is under control." Dalzell said. "Those are the two sentences that he shared with me. He did not provide any further information."

Dalzell was relieved.

"I was reassured to hear it was under control because the last place you want to see a fire is at an oil refinery," he said. "Nobody wants to see fire anywhere, but certainly you don't want to see one in a petroleum refinery, where they basically boil and then process oil into gasoline and jet fuels and all the rest of it.

"It was reassuring to hear that, according to the official I spoke to, everything is under control. Thankfully that's the case because we know tragically there have been fires in the past which were most unfortunate."