MARTINEZ (KRON) — An equipment issue at the Shell Martinez refinery led to flaring on Wednesday night.

The flaring started at around 6:15 p.m. The flaring was intermittent but continued as the site returned to normal.

“As a prudent response, the safety flare was triggered. The flaring was intermittent and may occur on occasion as the site returns to normal operations,” the refinery said on Facebook.

A flare is a safety device used to burn off excess gas at the refinery, the refinery said.

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“It was used properly in this case,” Shell said.

Citing “business and competitive reasons,” the refinery will not discuss the specifics of the incident.

Here is the rest of the refinery’s statement:

We would like to thank all of our employees who responded safely, to quickly resolve the issue.

We apologize for impacting our community by flaring. As always, we have a community inquiry phone number you can call 925-313-3777 or 925-313-3601 during off work hours.