In early August there was a huge refinery fire in Richmond. Eight miles away you could see the smoke and hear the constant sirens into the night. The fire brought out the anger of the many people who live in the shadow of the Chevron refinery. Written a couple months before, this post tells the story of Henry Clark, a Richmond resident, who no doubt experienced the fire.
NORTH RICHMOND, Calif. – From the house where he was born, Henry Clark can stand in his back yard and see plumes pouring out of one of the biggest oil refineries in the United States. As a child, he was fascinated by the factory on the hill, all lit up at night like the hellish twin of a fairy tale city. In the morning, he’d go out to play and find the leaves on the trees burned to a crisp. “Sometimes I’d find the air so foul, I’d have to grab my nose and run back into the house until it cleared up,” he said.
Read article on Residents’ Response to Fire
Original article in Environmental Health News, posted June 4, 2012 and written by Jane Kay & Cheryl Katz.
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