Fire at Viva Oil Refinery in Geelong Continues to Burn

A fire occurred at the Viva oil refinery in Corio, Geelong, Victoria, and has been burning overnight. As of shortly before 7am, the fire is still active and is not yet under control, according to Mick McGuinness. The blaze is located in the Mogas (motor gasoline) plant section of the refinery and is primarily fueled by various hydrocarbon fuels, predominantly liquid petrol, along with some gas and vapours.

Approximately 50 firefighting vehicles are currently engaged in efforts to extinguish the fire. An alert message was sent to the community due to concerns regarding smoke from the fire. Specialist hazardous materials teams from Geelong and Melbourne have set up atmospheric monitoring equipment and conducted sensing and sampling of the atmosphere and fire water runoff.

No contaminants have been detected in either the atmosphere or the fire water runoff. The fire is predicted to continue burning for another three to four hours, if not longer. However, a reduction in the intensity of the fire has been observed, indicating a depressurising of systems and pipe work.

Only two refineries remain in Australia, making the Viva refinery a significant employer and corporate citizen for Geelong, Victoria, and Australia.