Authorities: Total power failure cause of heavy flaring at Citgo

SULPHUR, LA (KPLC) - A total power failure caused heavy flaring at Citgo Tuesday evening, authorities said.

Five flares were burning at the plant south of Sulphur, said Dick Gremillion, director of Calcasieu's Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Dana Keel said the power failure was caused by "the loss of power from an Entergy substation."

Gremillion said he did not know whether the power failure was due to weather.

Because the flares were reflecting against the clouds, "it looks more serious than it is," said Gremillion.

Dana Keel, Citgo's government and public affairs manager, said the power failure was caused by "the loss of power from an Entergy substation."

The outage caused no off-site, environmental impact.

"Plans and safety systems, according to procedures, are in place to secure the units and maintain safe operations in response to the loss of power. All employees have been accounted for and offsite monitoring indicates no environmental impact to our neighboring community. All appropriate regulatory agencies have been notified. A notification through the CAER System was made as well," Keel said.

Mobile users, click HERE to view the KPLC SkyCam.

Copyright 2017 KPLC. All rights reserved.