I just learned of this while surfing Twitter and laughing over the @DevinsCow hilarity and saw this in someone’s feed, and hadn’t seen it written up here at all. If it has been, then my apologies for the duplication. *Tweet heavy*
This fire has been going on since Sunday, March 17th. The photos look ominous and frankly terrifying: a huge tower of near-solid black smoke, as the petrochemical tanks are burning. Apparently, they carry naphtha, toluene and other chemicals mostly used in making gasoline, and residents of the area have been complaining of headaches, sore throats, itchy eyes, having trouble breathing, and irritated noses, even after being told by officials that the air is safe to breathe.
The plume is wafting over the whole city and into neighbouring counties. Many of the photos I’ve seen picture the plume as a long column snaking along a flat line across the sky for miles…
If you look under the plume, you can see a little dark, blocky shape: that’s downtown Houston...
(I know this one’s from a Fux Nooz affiliate, but the photo is arresting):
A bit of political commentary:
I’d suspected something like this, but dayyum (tweet from a Pulitzer finalist, so this isn’t crappy hyperbole, either):
If the plume of smoke stays elevated, officials and meteorologists said, then the impact should be lessened...
As of noon, air quality levels were still at a "moderate" reading with 78 particles detected in the Houston area, according to AirNow.gov. That's one step below a level that's unhealthy for sensitive groups, including people with heart and lung disease, older adults and children. A hazardous level requires a particle reading of at least 301.
Current weather conditions are playing a major role in keeping the air quality readings below hazardous levels, according to meteorologists and county officials.
The dry and clear conditions helps the particles to dissipate above the ground, according to earlier reports in the Houston Chronicle. Additionally, warmer afternoon temperatures are causing the plume to stay above 1,000 feet, minimizing risk for smoke or soot inhalation for people on the ground, according to National Weather Service meteorologists.
The smoke was expected to fall to around 400 feet overnight with cooler temperatures, but that height still wouldn't impact residents' health, according to county officials.
"So far the ground-level concentrations haven't been that high," National Weather Service Meteorologist Dan Reilly said.
The accident and massive, black plume of smoke worries residents
Fire crews working for ITC said they finally were able to fight the fire offensively after a two-day stalemate, with the help of foam retardant and additional personnel. The company shut off pipelines and equipment near the blaze to reduce the risk of explosion.
The fire has forced Houston-area residents to grapple with the consequences of living so close to the heart of the nation’s petrochemical industry in ways previous accidents had not. Unlike invisible benzene discharges in east Houston or a gasoline leak into Buffalo Bayou after Hurricane Harvey, the Deer Park conflagration has sent a foreboding plume of dark smoke over Harris County, visible more than 30 miles away. A Bryan TV station reported the fire has caused a haze in the skies over Brazos, Grimes, Montgomery, Walker and Waller counties.
(snip)
Seven tanks were burning as of the 10:39 PM CDT update in the Houston Chronicle linked to above:
Around-the-clock firefighting efforts since the fire began Sunday morning have failed to quell the blaze, the origin of which had yet to determined.
Seven tanks were ablaze early Tuesday evening — up from five hours earlier — while two had collapsed; three others had been extinguished and three had yet to be touched by flames. The fire is within a block of 15 storage tanks on the southern edge of the plant. The tanks that are burning contain gasoline blends, base oils, xylene, pyrolysis gasoline and naphtha.
"Fuel has burned off," Harris County Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen said at a news conference at the company's Pasadena plant. "That may be what has to happen. What I can't tell you is how long that will take."
Two more tanks had caught fire as well early on Tuesday.
A worker described seeing smoke coming from one of the tanks, then fire later going up the side. He stated that it was possible a shut-off mechanism to prevent fires may not have been enough to stop the over-heated tank to catch fire.
Schools in the area of Deer Park were were announcing closures due to the smoke and worries about air quality:
At least six school districts near the Houston Ship Channel have announced they will close campuses on Wednesday, March 20, due to the three-day-old chemical fire blazing its way through the Interncontinental Terminals Company site in Deer Park.
Pasadena, La Porte, Deer Park, Sheldon, Galena Park and Channelview ISDs each cited a forecast change in weather patterns and health concerns in statements posted to their websites and social media accounts.
This thing looks scary as hell, judging from some of the photos I’ve seen. I have asthma, and if a fire like this happened near my home (I’m in San Bernardino County), I know I’d definitely be staying indoors. When the people who live next door to the plant are complaining about irritated eye and noses, sore throats, coughing, and having trouble breathing has me, and many others, asking if officials are downplaying the air hazard. People who have lung conditions like COPD, asthma or emphysema are particularly vulnerable, as are children.
Accidents like this make me consider that better safety-measures may be needed to protect people from the after-effects of major accidents like this—I’m looking at you, BP—even though those measures are pretty high-end, from what little I personally understand. Perhaps a kind of ‘neutral-zone’ limiting how close residential areas can be to a refinery or chemical plant such as this one?
I realize that transport access is important, too, and lengthening the distance materials have go to their pick-up points to be shipped elsewhere increases the chance of more accidents, but having these huge tanks of extremely hazardous materials right next to a waterway (shipping access or not) makes me cringe at the possibility of another BlueWater Horizon. I know these aren’t drill sites that can pour crude oil into the bay for days, but these are concentrated chemicals, which could possibly be worse for poisoning the immediate waters and shoreline.
The firefighters don’t know when they’ll be able to contain this fire, so the voices of officials attempting to calm the public may turn out to be useless. The company has shut down all of the tanks next to the fire, and firefighters are using retardant foam and other means to separate, and hopefully contain, the blaze.
To any Kossacks who might be affected by this disaster, I hope you stay in good health.
(I’m not a professional reporter, but I tried my best to edit this piece to be as neutral as I can, barring the little bits of “wow” hyperbole I put in here and there for “colour”.)
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2019 · 5:16:08 PM +00:00
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TheProgressiveAlien
I should have mentioned this here… It looks like I skimmed over the pollution and potential environmental impacts, and it’s true I didn’t make much mention of it. I also screwed up on the “make it neutral (in terms of style, not content) and I also wanted to stay away from speculation, and there’s too many ‘I’s in there (meaning not as neutral as I’d hoped). Writing diaries at 3:30 in the morning…
Anyway, moving on:
The mention of there being an average of 16 “major chemical incidents” every six weeks, making this refinery-complexes some of the most polluted areas in the country, is particularly disturbing. I cringe at the long-term environmental threat, what the nearby residents are experiencing with their health, and at the lack of official acknowledgement of this poisonous situation.
We need to GTFOff of fossil fuels right f***ing now, and these accidents and this fire should be worrisome, in my opinion. This section of Houston has been refining and shipping out petroleum products for decades and officials keep claiming that contaminants in the air are below the limit of allowed levels.
To me, that smells like old horseshit fermenting in stagnant pool.
At least some of the local news sites acknowledge the hazard, relay some of the questions worried people have, including those of at least one environmental group—the Sierra Club—though that isn’t really saying much. (Quote taken from here.
Here's the basics of what we do know about the fire so far:
- It was extinguished by 3 a.m., but firefighters are continuing to cool the tanks with foam and water to prevent re-ignition.
- The fire was contained within a block of 15 storage tanks on the southern edge of the plant.
- Tanks that caught fire were storing gasoline blends, base oils, xylene, pyrolysis gasoline and naptha.
- The intensity of the fire fluctuated, affecting up to eight tanks at its peak.
- The smoke plume it produced was visible throughout the Houston-area and reached all the way to Austin. The weather helped mitigate its impact to residents, officials said.
- ITC violated the federal Clean Water Act nine of the last 12 quarters, records show
- Several school districts near the fire cancelled classes Wednesday, after fire officials on Tuesday couldn't give a definitive timetable for how long the fire would last.
Here's what we don't know:
- How the fire started (so far, one worker has only speculated.)
- Officials say no one was seriously injured, but did the smoke and soot affect anyone's breathing?
- How firefighters extinguished the blaze, which appeared to get worse on Tuesday.
- The long-term health and environmental impacts of the chemicals that burned for almost four days.
- How long it will take for the plume to completely dissipate.
The hits just keep coming...
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2019 · 5:37:55 PM +00:00
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TheProgressiveAlien
Forgot this:
What happens when the plume disperses, or is pushed down from it’s current elevation by weather?
Anyway, there are reports that the fire was contained around 3 AM, local time, with two tanks still showing signs of burning, but fading out. Firefighters will continue laying on foam and other retardants to keep them from re-igniting.