The fire at the BP PLC (BP) Cherry Point refinery in Ferndale, Wash., on Friday occurred at the plant's crude distillation unit, according to a government document filing made public Saturday.

A fire broke out at the 230,000 barrel-a-day refinery around 2:30 p.m. Pacific time and was put by 4 p.m. with the help of local fire fighters, BP spokesman Scott Dean said. One contract worker was sent to the hospital for observation after sustaining a minor injury, Dean added.

The fire occurred "between the north vacuum heater and the north vacuum tower of the crude unit," according to BP's filing with the National Response Center.

BP is investigating the cause of the fire.

The refinery continued to operate after the fire at reduced rates, a source familiar with the refinery's operations had said Friday.

BP and other refiners are in the midst of settling preliminary labor contracts agreed to by Royal Dutch Shell's (RDSA, RDSA.LN) U.S. arm Shell Oil and the national United Steelworkers labor union on Jan. 31. The contract must be ratified by each local union at each refinery, with at least two to date--Marathon Petroleum Corp.'s (MPC) Kentucky refinery and Tesoro Corp.'s (TSO) North Dakota refinery--having rejected the preliminary agreement.

The union made safety the focus of this year's contracts after a spate of accidents at various refineries. An April 2010 explosion at Tesoro Corp.'s (TSO) refinery in Anacortes, Wash., killed seven people, while 15 died and more than 170 people were injured from an explosion and fire at BP's Texas City refinery in March 2005.

--By Ben Lefebvre, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-920; ben.lefebvre@dowjones.com

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