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Several people have visited social media to post images and videos showing the flames of the Irving Oil Refinery in Saint John – the largest in Canada – Monday morning.
Rob Beebe felt the explosion of his apartment on Martha Avenue, a few blocks from the factory.
He noticed that black smoke was coming from the refinery, and when he went to see more closely, he noticed that huge flames were flying 30 meters high.
Mr Beebe said: "We felt the whole building move as it flickered.
"We are sitting here and watching it burn right now.
"He gains weight."
Bob McVicar, a resident of New Brunswick, wrote on Facebook that it looked like a "bed explosion".
Doug Bruce, a resident of Saint John, who was about five or six kilometers from the refinery at the time of the blast, told Global News "that he had the impression that he was not going to be there. a truck had hit the building in which I was.
Irving Oil, a private energy company serving Eastern Canada, New England and Ireland, visited its Twitter page to confirm a "major incident".
"We can confirm that a major incident occurred at our Saint John refinery this morning.
"We are actively evaluating the situation at this time and will share more information when it becomes available."
Saint John police also tweeted: "The police are responding to an incident at the Irving refinery, please avoid the area.
"The following streets are closed: Loch Lomond at Commerce, Grandview at Champlain, Grandview at Bayside and Loch Lomond at Macdonald."
The Irving Oil plant, which employs 1,400 people, has the ability to refine 32,000 per day of gasoline, diesel oil, jet fuel and other petroleum products.
The company exports more than half of this offer to the United States.
Tom Kloza, Global Head of Energy Analysis at Oil Price Information Service, told CNBC that the refinery is probably the largest in terms of fuel imports into the Northeastern US market.
"We are probably importing more gasoline from this refinery than any other refinery in the world."
It's a story of rupture. More to follow.
