Explosions reported at plastics plant near Victoria, Tx [Formosa Platics plant]

KHOU tv Houston, Tx ^ | 10-06-05

[deport]

Explosions reported at plastics plant near Victoria

04:34 PM CDT on Thursday, October 6, 2005

From 11 News Staff Reports & Associated Press

There are reports of multiple explosions at the Formosa Plastics plant in Point Comfort, Texas.

The heavy black smoke could be seen from miles away.

A shelter-in-place has been issued for residents of Point Comfort and parts of nearby Port Lavaca.

A city employee says an elementary school had been evacuated.

There's no word on whether anyone was injured. Two ambulances have been called to the plant.

"You could see the flames for some miles away from the facility. There is still a large amount of smoke coming from there," said a witness by telephone.

One witness e-mailed 11 News to say she could see smoke from 40 miles away.

"Big black smoke coming up and we're sitting here watching the smoke kinda go over the bay," said Port Lavaca City Manager Jerry Broz.

Nonie Cody's husband works at the plant. She said he called her to let her know he was OK.

"There was a huge explosion down there," Cody said via e-mail. "He said there was a fire and lots of black smoke."

The blast at the Formosa Plastics facility caused the Port Lavaca causeway, state Highway 35 and Farm-to-Market Road 1593 to close.

Point Comfort and Port Lavaca are in Calhoun County.

[deport]

This is Southwest of Houston. The plant makes PVC, polyprolene, etc. Plastics you'll see used around your home.

[deport]

Oct. 6, 2005, 4:56PM

Explosion hits plastics plant
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

At least five people were injured in anexplosion and fire at the Formosa Plastics plant in Point Comfort.

The blast closed the Port Lavaca causeway, state Highway 35 and Farm-to-Market Road 1593, the Victoria Advocate reported.

A spokesman with the TCEQ told the Houston Chronicle the explosion was major, but he had no details yet.

A spokeswoman with Memorial Medical Center in Port Lavaca said there were only minor injuries reported so far.

A marketing spokesman with DeTar Hospial Navarro in Victoria said they had been told to expect injured to come in. Jerrel Robinowitch, who said he heard "it's pretty serious," said the hospital was setting up a decontamination area.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency has dispatched a team from Dallas to the Point Comfort plant.

The explosion was reported about 3:30 p.m. in the Olefins 2 unit, a plastics plant, which had recently expanded by 1.8 billion pounds per year.

The 1,800-acre industrial complex on Matagorda Bay is Formosa's largest facility. It employs an estimated 1,500 workers. It is 100 miles southwest of Houston.

The company manufactures caustic soda, ethylene dichloride, vinyl chloride, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), suspension resin, ethylene, polyethylene and polypropylene.

Two ambulances have been called to the plant, the Advocate said.

Annette Mang, who said she worked for the city, said elderly people in the town were urged to shut off their air conditioners because of concerns about pollutants in the air.

Point Comfort, on the Texas coast, is 150 miles southeast of San Antonio. It is home to fewer than 1,000 people.

[deport]

Explosion rocks plastics plantSmoke closes roads

(10/6/05 - POINT COMFORT, TX) - At least five people received minor injuries after an explosion and fire sent a pillar of black smoke into the sky at a South Texas plastics plant Thursday afternoon.

Authorities closed nearby roads, including the Port Lavaca causeway, State Highway 35 and Farm-to-Market Road 1593 following the blast, which happened about 3:30 p.m. at the Formosa Plastics plant.

Elderly people in the town were asked to shut off their air conditioners and residents were urged to stay inside because of concerns about air pollutants.

The plant makes PVC and vinyl for floor and wall coverings. Formosa spokesman Roy Thibault told Houston television station KTRK that it wasn't clear what was burning and that the facility uses many flammable materials.

Thibault said the plant had been evacuated and emergency responders were on site, but further details were sketchy. At least 1,100 people work at the plant, with an average of 500 people being on site at any one time, he said.

According to The Victoria Advocate, two ambulances had been called to the plant.

Pat Trigg, a spokeswoman at the Memorial Medical Center located four miles from the plant, said at least five minor injuries were reported but that she had not heard of anything major. She said no one had been sent to the hospital.

Formosa Plastics Corp. USA, based in Livingston, N.J., is a privately held plastics and petrochemicals company formed in 1978. In additional to Port Comfort, it has facilities in Delaware City, Del., Illiopolis, Ill., and Baton Rouge, La.

Point Comfort, on the Texas coast, is 150 miles southeast of San Antonio. It is home to fewer than 1,000 people.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[devolve]

ping

[MEG33]

No deaths reported is the good news...

[potlatch]

Drudge says it's near Houston but it is actually right on the coast by Port Lavaca. Six injured and no fatalities, but one sounds burned pretty bad.

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou051006_mh_plantexplosion.cae87da6.html

[topher]

As long as no refineries went up.

A plastics plant needs to be near supplies from refineries but not adjacent.

It would be really bad news if it were a refinery -- large or small. We can use all the refinery capacity we can get right now...

[Maeve]

Just fyi ping

[ntnychik]

You sure get your share of the action down there. Do they offer explosions insurance?