Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) settled this week for $6.6 million with state and federal government related to their Deer Park chemical plant fire more than five years ago. The ITC fire that started March 17, 2019 burned for three days, which prompted a shelter-in-place order for residents. The fire released hundreds of thousands of barrels [...]
Texas has filed a civil lawsuit against Shell for $1 million in damages related to a 3-day fire at Shell's Deer Park facility in May. The state is claiming that the chemical fire caused air and water pollution that violated state law. The lawsuit is seeking damages from both Shell and Pemex, Mexico's national oil [...]
During the first half of 2023 the state of Texas has experienced 27 chemical incidents. This is about a quarter of all chemical incidents for the year throughout all of the United States. Data shows that on average a chemical fire, chemical explosion or toxic release event happens every two days in the U.S. Groups [...]
A new report highlights how dangerous working in the petrochemical industry can be. A lack of training and awareness surrounding a piece of equipment was especially dangerous for some workers in La Porte in 2021. An acid leak broke out in the summer of 2021 inside the La Porte LyondellBassell plant. The accident killed and [...]
Recent reporting has uncovered air monitoring data and records that show that toxic benzene lingered for more than two weeks after shelter-in-place orders had been lifted related to the 2019 Deer Park ITC chemical disaster. Experts say that more public health measures should have been taken related to the ITC chemical fire. Reports say that [...]
Petroleum gas was being transferred from one tanker to another at the Pasadena INEOS facility last week, as something went wrong and led to an explosion and then a fire. One person was injured Wednesday at the INEOS chemical site. INEOS' website says that it is the largest producer of Phenol and Acetone. Officials from [...]
Friday morning just before 9 a.m. a fire broke out at Celanese Industrial located on Bayport Boulevard. Firefighters responded to the chemical plant fire and issued an all-clear order. Officials monitored the fire and results and said there would be no impact from the chemical plant fire for the surrounding community. The all clear was [...]
A chemical leak Tuesday night at LyondellBasell Industries in La Porte killed two people and left dozens others injured. Crews responded to reports of an incident inside the acetyls unit at LyondellBasell Industries. The plant is located at 1515 Miller Cut-Off Rd., around 7:35 p.m. 100,000 pounds of acetic acid was released in the chemical [...]
Residents near the Dow chemical plant in La Porte were evacuated last week after a tanker with dangerous chemicals was found venting. The alert first came around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning after workers found a tanker trailer with hydroxyethyl acrylate venting. The evacuation order continued for some overnight, but most residents were cleared to return to [...]
A massive fire broke out in March 2019 at Intercontinental Terminals Company's facility in Deer Park. It spread to almost a dozen other tanks, and a plume of smoke lingered over the Houston skyline for three days. During the fire, residents in Deer Park were forced to shelter in place due to the hazards of [...]