Government officials have issued a shelter-in-place order for an industrial area around the petrochemicals storage facility southeast of Houston where a large fire burned for almost three days. The Intercontinental Terminals Company said early Thursday “action” levels of the hazardous chemical benzene had been detected in the air at their Deer Park plant.
ITC said a “chemical odor incident occurred at our facility. At this time, (an) odor may be noticeable to the community. We are coordinating with local officials, and working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
The order covered several square blocks. No residences were affected.
The blaze hit multiple storage tanks at the facility and burned from early Sunday to early Wednesday and sent a huge, dark plume of smoke thousands of feet into the air.
It led to concerns about air quality among some residents and environmental groups despite reassurances from officials that testing shows nothing amiss during the fire and immediately after it was extinguished.
The tanks that caught fire contained components of gasoline and materials used in nail polish remover, glues and paint thinner. ITC said 11 of the 15 storage tanks located in the area where the fire occurred were damaged.
The blaze briefly flared up late Wednesday afternoon. The flare-up, which sent flames and smoke into the air, was contained within 30 seconds by firefighters, the city of Deer Park said in a tweet.
Before Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency conducted air quality tests throughout the Houston area, both on the ground and from a small airplane, and “measured no levels of hazardous concentrations,” said agency official Adam Adams.
The EPA also reviewed data collected by ITC, Harris County, where Houston is located, and by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and that data did not show hazardous concentrations of volatile organic compounds, Adams said.
The state environmental agency said in a statement Wednesday that the benzene levels it found near and around the storage facility do not pose a health concern.
But some residents who live near the storage facility said Wednesday they don’t have confidence in the air quality test results.
“Everything has been wrapped up in this nice perfect bow in saying that there were no problems. Every air quality was perfect. Every wind was perfect blowing it away. And if everything was so perfect, why did it happen?” longtime Deer Park resident Terri Garcia said.
Bryan Parras, an organizer in Houston with the Sierra Club, said some residents who live near the facility have experienced various symptoms since the fire, including headaches, nausea and nose bleeds. He said his environmental group has concerns not just about the air quality, but about potential impacts to the environment and the fishing industry if chemicals from the storage facility or foam used to fight the fire leaked into the Houston Ship Channel, which leads to the Gulf of Mexico.
