Guardian investigation fuels class-action lawsuit against petro giant

Marathon Petroleum said a massive fire at its Louisiana refinery caused no offsite impacts'. Reporting by the Guardian and Forensic Architecture raised doubts about this claim

• The huge US toxic fire shrouded in secrecy: I taste oil in my mouth'

Oil giant Marathon Petroleum is fighting an expanded class-action lawsuit fueled by an investigation by the Guardian and Forensic Architecture, which examined a huge toxic blaze at the company's sprawling refinery in south-east Louisiana in 2023.

Parts of the oil refinery, the third largest in America, caught fire for over three days in August 2023 after a large storage tank containing the toxic and flammable hydrocarbon naphtha leaked for more than 13 hours unbeknown to the predominantly Black low-income communities that surround the facility.