Oct. 6, 2005, 4:56PMExplosion hits plastics plant
Copyright 2005 Houston ChronicleAt 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.
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...
Just fyi ping