PORTLAND, Ore. — Investigators are looking into whether an earthquake triggered an explosion and fire at a fuel storage facility near San Francisco.
Meantime, some in the Portland area are wondering if the same thing could happen here.
That's because the company NuStar Energy, which owns the California facility, also owns one in Portland.
It is just part of a six-mile stretch of fuel tanks along the Willamette River near the community of Linnton that store about 90-percent of Oregon's fuel.
The issue is that they sit on a type of soil, that in the event of a major earthquake here, would liquefy.
When that happens, experts say those tanks will likely fail too.
"Having that happen so close to Oregon with a company that had a fuel tank facility here, it's really scary, and it's real," said Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran.
Meieran is sponsoring a resolution that would hold fuel companies accountable for any environmental, economic, or public health damage caused in a major earthquake.
In a statement NuStar Energy stressed that safety is its highest priority and that it's committed to finding out what went wrong in California and working to make sure it doesn't happen again.