Little remains publicly known about an explosion at the BP Cherry Point refinery near Birch Bay that shook the community and sent three workers to the hospital on Saturday morning.
Representatives from BP and the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries said they’ve launched investigations into the incident.
Blaine and Birch Bay residents reported on social media that they heard a loud boom from BP just before 10:20 a.m. Saturday. The explosion shook the ground at Birch Bay State Park and Point Whitehorn, while it could be heard in Custer and on H Street in Blaine.
Cesar Rodriguez, U.S. media relations manager for BP, said three workers were transported to the hospital and released by the evening.
PeaceHealth spokesperson Amy Drury said the workers were evaluated at St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, but declined to comment on the general extent of their injuries or treatment.
Rodriguez said the incident was contained Saturday morning and did not pose a risk to the Birch Bay community.
“We increased air monitoring and continue to monitor,” Rodriguez said. “There have been no elevated levels of contaminants detected.”
Several people close to the incident wrote on social media that the explosion occurred in the hydrocracker unit. A hydrocracker unit uses hydrogen to convert heavy oils into lighter products, such as diesel, jet fuel and gasoline.
Rodriguez declined to verify when or where the explosion started.
“We are conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the incident,” he said in response.
The refinery was in the midst of turnaround, which is the temporary shutdown of units for inspection and maintenance that brings contractors from across the country.
The Northern Light has reached out to people who said they witnessed the explosion.
Rodriguez said the unit where the incident occurred was not damaged. He declined to comment on whether the injured workers were BP employees or contractors and how many people were near the explosion.
The BP spokesperson said the company promptly notified relevant county, state and federal agencies about the incident, but did not answer which agencies those included.
Matt Ross, public affairs manager at the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, said the department launched an investigation into BP and two contractors, Spectrum and Intertek, on April 21.
Labor and Industries is limited on the information it can share right now, Ross said, adding that the investigation would be made public once finished. The investigation could take up to six months, he said.
The Northwest Clean Air Agency (NWCAA) received a notification of the incident at 11:19 a.m. Saturday, said Tammy Dixon, the agency’s public records officer. Dixon said BP has not reported any potentially harmful emission releases to the agency, so there is nothing for it to inspect right now.
NWCAA will wait for a monthly report that BP sends the agency to determine whether it needs to look into anything further, she said.
“It’s too soon to do anything at this moment,” Dixon said.
An incident report was made to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Response Center at 11:54 a.m. Saturday and sent to the Washington State Department of Ecology at 12:07 p.m. that same day, Ecology spokesperson Scarlet Tang said.
Ecology doesn’t have a regulatory role because the incident did not involve equipment the department regulates, Tang said.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which investigates major chemical incidents at refineries, did not respond to whether it was inspecting the explosion.
This is the second time in just over a year that refinery operations have puzzled Birch Bay residents. In March 2025, the NWCAA received over 70 complaints of a strong odor coming from BP Cherry Point, which the agency attributed at the time to incomplete burning of hydrocarbon gases, likely from the flare not burning correctly. The gases came from the refinery’s coker unit, which was in the process of being shut down during turnaround last year.
Dixon said BP has since resolved the incident from March 2025.
