CROCKETT, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on oil facility fire in Northern California (all times local):
9:40 p.m.
Authorities say they've contained a fire at a fuel storage facility in the San Francisco Bay Area that prompted a shelter-in-place warning for some 12,000 nearby residents.
Contra Costa County fire officials tweeted at around 9 p.m. Tuesday that the fire at NuStar Energy's tank farm in Crockett had been contained.
The blaze began at about 2 p.m. and burned two tanks containing about 250,000 gallons (946,325 liters) of the gasoline additive ethanol.
The fire, which kept reigniting, sent up a huge column of black smoke that prompted officials to warn residents to stay indoors and seal their windows and doors.
Fire officials said environmental health teams were working to assess the health threat.
Meanwhile, authorities reopened Interstate 80, which was shut for about seven hours, creating a huge traffic crush.
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6:40 p.m.
A firefighting expert says crews will have to use water and foam to battle a huge blaze at a fuel storage facility in the San Francisco Bay Area.
About 12,000 residents are warned Tuesday to stay inside with windows and doors closed as black smoke fills the sky above the ethanol fire at the Selby Terminal in Crockett.
Marcelo D'Amico of Texas-based Orcus Fire and Risk says crews are using water to cool tanks adjacent to the ones already burning. He says foam to help douse the flames is being sprayed from fire trucks and delivered via a fixed system installed at the facility.
He says ethanol blazes are not necessarily any more difficult to fight than gasoline or diesel fires.
Contra Costa County fire officials said petroleum experts are now on scene to assist.
