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Plumes of fire and smoke were visible throughout the New York area after an explosion near an oil refinery in Staten Island. (Associated Press)

New York Times Staff and Wire Reports said, “The explosion, which could be heard several miles away, occurred at the edge of Port Mobile, near the Outerbridge Crossing that links the island to Woodbridge, N.J., in the southwestern part of Staten Island, said a spokeswoman for the Staten Island borough office.”

An explosion rocked an oil storage facility at the edge of Staten Island, sending black smoke and flames hundreds of feet into the air.

“We have a preliminary report that a tanker was transferring a product or was being fueled and somehow ignited,” Fire Department Chief William Van Wart said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether any of the dozens of oil tanks at the ExxonMobil storage facility burned.

“We have reports that one employee was injured and has been taken to the hospital,” said an Exxon Mobil official. “Two others that were on the barge are unaccounted for.”

FBI spokesman Steve Kodak in Newark, N.J., said there was no indication of terrorism. However, FBI officials in Washington said they were still examining it because a refinery is the type of infrastructure terrorists might target.

The Department of Homeland Security “is closely monitoring the situation with local state authorities and other federal agencies as well as assisting in the coordination of the response,” said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

The explosion, which could be heard several miles away, occurred at the edge of Port Mobile, near the Outerbridge Crossing that links the island to Woodbridge, N.J., in the southwestern part of Staten Island, said a spokeswoman for the Staten Island borough office.

It was reported shortly after 10 a.m., according to a spokeswoman for the New York Fire Department.

City officials said residents were not in immediate danger.

“At this point, people should not take any special precautions. It’s unlikely this could spread to a residential area,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said shortly after the fire was reported.

Sgt. Charles McDevitt of the Woodbridge, N.J. police department said the fire “poses no hazard to the New Jersey side of the river.”

However, Mr. McDevitt said that as a precaution, residents living in about 50 to 75 homes located directly across the Arthur Kill were being evacuated from the fire scene.

He said 14-16 officers and the Woodbridge fire department have been dispatched to the scene.

The explosion rattled investor nerves already skittish over a looming war in Iraq, sending the benchmark Dow Jones industrial average down almost 0.8 percent to a session low 7,854.38.

The Dow later recouped its losses, rising about 0.3 percent as fears the explosion was set off deliberately subsided.

Keith Keenan, vice president of institutional trading at brokerage Wall Street Access, said the fire “had a lot of people on edge” in the market.

“It appears the market initially dipped pretty strongly, and I think now people recognize that it might be just a fire,” Keenan said. “Obviously, the knee-jerk reaction is that it’s terrorism.”

U.S. crude oil futures soared more than $1 a barrel after reports of the fire. April crude traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped to an intraday high of $35.95 a barrel, surging $1.21.