Aug. 31--A fire broke out at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby early Thursday, following chemical explosions that sent plumes of black smoke into the air.
Arkema said Harris County officials notified the company about the explosions around 2 a.m. Thursday, adding that residents may hear additional explosions because the product is stored in the plant, which is 25 miles northeast of downtown Houston.
Nearby residents should stay inside, turn off their air conditioning and close their windows and doors.
"You shouldn't be here, but if you haven't left, shelter in place," Arkema spokesman Jeff Carr said. "That's our advice."
The chemicals are stored in 18-wheeler box vans throughout the plant. Arkema initially reported two of the vans exploded. Wednesday morning, Assistant Chief Bob Royall with the Harris County Fire Marshall clarified that there were multiple explosions in just one of the vans. The van had multiple containers of the chemicals inside.
The company expects additional explosions, as the other vans combust, Carr said.
The plant has nine box vans with 36,000 pounds of organic peroxide in each. The organic peroxide is stored in 15-pound cardboard containers, said Harris County Fire Marshall spokeswoman Rachel Moreno.
Three of the vans lost refrigeration by Wednesday morning. Six of them had not, Moreno said.
The Arkema plant was evacuated on Tuesday morning, Royall said.
The Harris County Fire Marshall is not monitoring any other chemical plants in the area, Royall added.
The explosions started about 1 a.m., causing flames and 40 feet of gray smoke that later turned black, Royall said.
The company said it had agreed with local authorities that, because of the volatile chemicals involved, "the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out."
"They will burn with intensity until the fuel is consumed and then they will die down," Royall said.
"The plan all along from the fire marshal was that if it catches fire, let it burn itself out and contain it," said Jason Spencer, a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
Within two hours of the explosions, sheriff's deputies were dispatched to block off roads in the area and a stream of fire trucks headed to the scene.
Highway 90 was blocked in both directions at Crosby Eastgate, according to Houston TranStar's traffic map. The plant sits just 1,000 feet or so from the highway.
A total of 15 deputies with the Harris County Sheriff's Office were taken to the hospital after inhaling the fumes and getting smoke in their eyes. At least nine of them drove themselves as a precaution.
By 7:15 a.m., eight of the deputies had been released, the sheriff's office tweeted.
Seven were still being evaluated.
Gonzalez said nearby residents should shelter in place at home. He said authorities would tell local residents if a wider evacuation zone was needed. Gonzalez arrived on the scene Thursday morning.
Spencer said the deputies had been dispatched to keep people from getting too close to the plant. An injured deputy had respiratory problems after driving through a plume of smoke. However, the sheriff's office tweeted that Arkema said the smoke the deputies inhaled was "a non-toxic irritant."
"What we were told is that the fumes from this chemical were not life-threatening," Spencer said. "I don't think any of our deputies are in a life-threatening situation."
Spencer added all of the information the sheriff's office had about the the toxicity of the chemical was from Arkema.
A spokeswoman for the county fire marshal's office warned that it's not clear whether all residents had followed the evacuation order given for the area with 1.5 miles of the plant.
Moreno said the office heard that a woman may still be in the evacuation zone, though that was not confirmed. Carr, the company spokesman, said he didn't know if all residents had evacuated.
The National Weather Service reported that winds in that area were moving to the east at 4 to 9 mph as of 4:30 a.m.
Crosby officials had been bracing for an explosion at the Arkema plant where floodwaters knocked out power and generators needed to keep volatile chemicals stored at the facility cool.
All employees at the plant had been evacuated already late Tuesday, as were residents from about 300 nearby homes. The Federal Aviation Administration barred flights over the area.
"We're still under water out there," Royall said. "So we're being very cautious."
However, at least one family not far outside the 1.5-mile zone was left worried.
"But homes two miles away are safe?" questioned Alicia Garcia, who had recently returned to the family's home about four miles away after evacuating Sunday because of flooding.
At a press news conference Wednesday, Rich Rowe, Arkema's CEO, said that if the volatile organic peroxides stored at the plant get too warm, some sort of explosion will happen.
"There is no way to prevent an explosion or fire," Rowe said.
Local officials had previously established an evacuation zone in an area 1.5 miles from the plant, according to the Arkema statement issued nearly 90 minutes after the reported explosion.
The Arkema facility was among the Houston-area sites with the highest potential for harm in an incident, according to a 2016 analysis by the O'Connor Process Safety Center and the Houston Chronicle. That analysis factored risks based on the amount and type of dangerous chemicals on site and their proximity to the public.
The volatile chemicals involved in the reaction are organic peroxides, according the company, which can become flammable at warm temperatures.
Rowe refused to release the company's federally mandated risk management plan or its chemical inventory to reporters.
He downplayed any long-term impact or any toxic inhalation hazards from a fire or explosion at the plant, saying he was not aware of anything the public should be concerned about.
A statement on the company's web site from Wednesday says "At Crosby, we prepared for what we recognized could be a worst-case scenario. We had redundant contingency plans in place. Right now, we have an unprecedented 6 feet of water at the plant. We have lost primary power and two sources of emergency backup power. As a result, we have lost critical refrigeration of the materials on site that could now explode and cause a subsequent intense fire. The high water and lack of power leave us with no way to prevent it."
Initially, Carr said the fire was caused by a combustion event, not a chemical release. Later Wednesday morning, Carr said the flames were caused by a small release of chemicals.
He added that the company is bringing air-quality monitoring equipment to the site Thursday morning.
"This site has an outstanding individual safety record, and they're determined not to screw it up today," he said.
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