What happened

A heater on a reformer unit exploded around 12:51pm at PBF Energy's Chalmette refinery near New Orleans, sending flames and smoke into the sky and releasing an estimated 13.3 tons of pollutants including a naphtha-hydrogen mixture. No injuries were reported and the fire was quickly brought under control; state air monitoring found no off-site detections of concern. The cause remained undetermined in the initial reporting. This was an accidental industrial incident, not an attack.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.