Photo: VCG

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A huge fire that engulfed an oil storage facility in Contra Costa County, Northern California, has been contained by Tuesday night, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (Con Fire PIO) said.

The fire that burned two ethanol holding tanks at the NuStar Energy LP facility in Crockett, about 50 km northeast of downtown San Francisco, "is now contained," Con Fire PIO tweeted Tuesday night.

"County Environmental Health HazMat teams are working to assess the current health threat in Crockett, Rodeo, and Hercules," it said, adding that the county's firefighters were protecting additional storage from a flare up at the NuStar scene.

The flames that erupted earlier in the day followed a large explosion that rattled windows for miles around and engulfed two huge tanks of ethanol, local KRON4 TV reported.

"The fires and explosion prompted an air quality advisory on Tuesday for the area surrounding the Carquinez Strait," said the TV network.

No injuries were reported from the refinery fire, but the Highway I-80 was forced to close for several hours before it was re-opened at night.

Con Fire PIO also lifted a shelter in place order for residents in the area impacted from the NuStar fire late Tuesday night. Earlier, the residents were advised to stay inside and close all windows and doors to avoid exposure to smoke from the blaze.

Fire officials said they are still investigating the cause of the fire.