{"id":217719,"date":"2026-03-24T06:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/217719\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T06:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:30:12","slug":"authorities-responding-to-reported-explosion-at-valero-refinery-in-port-arthur-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/217719\/","title":{"rendered":"Authorities responding to reported explosion at Valero refinery in Port Arthur, Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-ylk=\"elm:icon;slk:Scripps News;\" href=\"https:\/\/scrippsnews.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img alt=\"Scripps News\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"211\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"pr-2.5 max-w-[150px] max-h-[40px] min-[601px]:max-w-[115px]\" style=\"color:transparent;max-width:auto;max-height:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260186c0-316b-11ee-bb75-804f26382148.png\"\/><\/a>Tue, March 24, 2026 at 1:21 AM UTC<img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1242\" height=\"828\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/613cad5e4f5c20244e91fcac3e51351c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Valero Port Arthur Refinery is shown Monday, March 23, 2020, in Port Arthur, Texas. The Texas Gulf Coast is the United States\u2019 petrochemical corridor, with four of the country\u2019s 10 biggest oil and gas refineries and thousands of chemical facilities. (AP Photo\/David J. Phillip)<\/p>\n<p> (David J. Phillip\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>Police in Port Arthur, Texas, asked residents to shelter in place on Monday evening following reports of an explosion at a Valero refinery in the community.<\/p>\n<p>Local news outlets reported a large explosion had taken place, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.<\/p>\n<p>Port Arthur police later confirmed a Valero refinery as the scene of the explosion.<\/p>\n<p>There were no immediate reports of injuries, according to officials who spoke to local news outlets.<\/p>\n<p>Police asked residents on the west side of the city to shelter in place.<\/p>\n<p>The shelter order would remain in effect <a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CityofPortArthur\/posts\/pfbid024XQxtGBoy9jpeSgk4kzsxtKQVjuSvzUaWEVyDhSDWoSn13yjrU3N8cNcfUf6XUmJl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:until emergency personnel gave the all clear;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">until emergency personnel gave the all clear<\/a>, the city&#8217;s emergency management agency and mayor said.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas state department of transportation directed drivers to avoid the area.<\/p>\n<p>Local emergency officials said crews were en route to respond to the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Further details about the cause or effects of the explosion were not immediately available.<\/p>\n<p>The Valero refinery in Port Arthur is <a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/energyexplained\/oil-and-petroleum-products\/refining-crude-oil-refinery-rankings.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:one of the largest in the U.S.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">one of the largest in the U.S.<\/a>, capable of processing 360,000 barrels of oil a day.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Stay with Scripps News for continued updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tue, March 24, 2026 at 1:21 AM UTC The Valero Port Arthur Refinery is shown Monday, March 23,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[84916,84873,27,29,28,84906],"class_list":["post-217719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-news-outlets","tag-port-arthur","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-valero-refinery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}