Power outage at BP oil refinery in Indiana prompts evacuation, temporary shutdown

WHITING, Ind. (AP) — Authorities say BP’s sprawling oil refinery in northwest Indiana was hit by a power outage that prompted the company to shut it down and evacuate workers. Initially, only employees who work at an office building at BP’s Whiting refinery were evacuated after Thursday’s outage. But Whiting Mayor Steve Spebar tells The Times of Northwest Indiana that BP later decided to evacuate all employees from the refinery, which is located along Lake Michigan about 15 miles southeast of Chicago. The city of Whiting said in a statement that the refinery was flaring its stacks in response to the outage. BP spokesperson Christina Audisho says the company is shutting the refinery down.