15 Law enforcement officers complained of “headaches and dizziness” after explosions
“A flooded chemical plant near Houston exploded twice early Thursday, sending a plume of smoke into the air and triggering a fire that the firm plans to let ‘burn itself out,'” a report said.
The owner-operator, the France-based Arkema Group, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, had warned on Wednesday that the plant would catch fire and explode, and that there was nothing to stop it.
All residents within the 1½-mile-radius of the plant were evacuated on Tuesday
The plant is located in Crosby, Texas (about 20 miles NE of Houston) was submerged under 6 feet of water from Hurricane HARVEY and had been without electricity since Sunday, the report said.
“We have an unprecedented 6 feet of water throughout the plant. We’ve lost primary power and two sources of emergency backup power. And as a result, critical refrigeration needed for our materials on site is lost,” the chief executive of the company’s North America operations told reporters.
Fema said on Thursday that “the plume [was] incredibly dangerous,” and that evacuations were based on “plume modeling,” used to predict the geographic extent of a hazard area from an explosion.