Explosion at Freeport Texas chemical plant

[newsperson999]

lots of smoke..they said it may be a railcar but it looks like more than that..I saw at least 2 areas where smoke is rising..30-40 yards apart..it looked like a small sturcture on fire as well as the railcar

[Free State Four]

The name, "Bush", is connected with each target.

Oh no... the beer plant is next.

Sorry, that would mean the bean plant is next. The Busch's beer plant is not on the list. :o) fsf

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I live around chemical plants and these explosions have been happening for the last 30 years.

That sure shoots down any conspiracy theories, right? How frequently do you feel an explosion 20 miles away? This happens every day, right?

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Now that is the most wonderful example of positive thinking I have read!

If you want a Polyanna, you won't find it here. Get the book under 'fiction'.

[Jalapeno]

So do you start with conspiracy theories and then find the facts to support it? Is that how it works?

[WilliamWallace1999]

9/13/02) — At least one explosion has rocked a chemical plant in Freeport. It happened mid-morning Friday at the BASF Corporation on Copper Road near Hwy 332.
According to Mindy Valusek with Brazoria County, the chemical involved in the explosion was ammonia. The ammonia cloud was moving south-southwest and people in the path of the cloud should shelter-in-place and turn off their air conditioning.

Roads in the area that have been closed include State Highway 332, Business 288 in Clute is closed at Johnson Road, and Highway 332 at Main Street in Clute. Brazosport ISD is keeping students inside.

An eyewitness described the situation as rattling his entire house about 4-5 miles away, and briefly cutting his power.

Clute resident Tim Williams said, "I heard one large explosion, but it appeared to have a number of waves that came through."

Another witness who was reportedly 300 feet away from the fire said there was a leaking ammonia tank. Most of the plant had been evacuated and emergency crews had been called in, according to the witness. He described the explosion as a devastating fireball that caused considerable damage.

The Clute Fire Department and BASF have advised anyone in the area to turn off their air conditioning and shelter in place. It's recommended that residents not go outside unless it's absolutely necessary.

Apparently, there have been minor injuries at the scene.

Details are still coming into the newsroom. Stay with ABC13 Eyewitness News for the latest on this developing story.

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

I hope this isn't terrorism, but it seems awfully convenient that the explosion happened near such a reactive center. Hmmmmm. I guess we'll have to wait and see what kind of a story our government comes up with.

Hopefully, not another "bs" airliner went down on its own story.

[SouthernFreebird]

The name, "Bush", is connected with each target

Thats it,....... I'm shaving.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

You have any stats on chemical plant blowups?

No stats but if you live on the Texas Gulf Coast where we produce 30% of the chemicals in the United States you would know this happens all the time. Several small ones (like this is) a year and a big one every 2-3 years, well that might have dropped since Charter sold out.

[WilliamWallace1999]

Sept. 13, 2002, 10:40AM

Explosion reported in Freeport
By S.K. BARDWELL
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle



A railcar containing ammonia exploded at the BASF chemical plant along Highway 332 in Freeport this morning, rattling buildings and homes for up to 35 miles away, local police reported.

The BASF production plant has been evacuated, according to workers. A Brazoria County dispatcher told Channel 13 News that minor injuries had been reported.

Highway 332 and parts of other roads nearby are reportedly closed to traffic.

Officials have ordered otherplants in the area locked down because of air quality concerns. Reports also indicate that residents along Slaughter Road are being told to stay inside their homes because of the air quality.

Emergency officials are checking wind direction to see which, if any, residential areas could be affected by the blast. For now, residents are being asked to "shelter in place," which means stay indoors.

Charlotte Zwahr said she lives 20 miles from the BASF plant, located at 602 Copper Road in Freeport, and heard and felt the explosion. Minutes later, Zwahr said, her husband, a driver for Service Transport who was inside the plant at the time of the explosion, called to say the plant was being evacuated.

Zwahr said a cloud of white smoke was seen over the plant first, then the explosion occurred, and then clouds of black smoke appeared.

Clute police officers said they were deluged with reports of the explosion from area residents who believed it came from the BASF plant, but had not yet been able to reach anyone at the plant.

[cav68]

That will be my limit, I'll have to rejoin and complete a SD

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

So do you start with conspiracy theories and then find the facts to support it? Is that how it works?

Naw, I just spend my day taking cheap shots at people and ridiculing them for thinking that terrorists might actually wish us harm.

[WilliamWallace1999]

HOUSTON (KHOU) -- An ammonia railcar exploded Friday morning near the BASF chemical plant along Highway 332 in Freeport. The explosion rattled windows for miles and prompted local officials to advise residents to stay indoors.


Some people reported feeling the blast as far as 50 miles away and one Lake Jackson woman said it sounded like the city had blown up.


Another witness said that she was working at her place of employment when the lights went out. Then she heard a big explosion. She went outside and saw a cloud rising up from the area of the plants. As she drove by, she saw a lot of black smoke.




The witness said the plant has been evacuated within a mile radius. She said there are no schools, and a few businesses around the plant.


According to the Brazoria County Sheriff's Department there have been some road closures, but at this point there are no injuries or deaths reported.


"Right now all we know is it was in a tanker car with ammonia in it," said a sheriff's department employee who declined to be identified. "It is contained within the plant."




Calls to the plant went to a recorded message that said, "There has been an explosion at the BASF facility in Freeport, Texas. Details are not available. We will provide further details as they become available."


Freeport Mayor James Barnett said lights flickered at city hall. He had no other information.


"We have a reported explosion at BASF," he said. "That's about all I know at this point."


Freeport is about 50 miles south of Houston.


A highly toxic chemical, ammonia is used in the manufacture of fertilizers, plastics and explosives. It also produces the sharp odor that you may remember from your grandmother's smelling salts and some household cleaning products.


An 11 News crew in en route to the site. Stay tuned to Channel 11 for more on this breaking story, and check back here at KHOU.com for continuing developments.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

a big one every 2-3 years

Odds are 1/5th a percent chance on any given day. Ok. TY for the guestimate.

[dirtboy]

Oh no... the beer plant is next.

Hardly. Having drank Busch on a couple of occasions when nothing else was available, I can only say that no terrorist in his right mind would take out a facility that already causes countless symptoms of headaches and naseau across the United States.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Dude, take a chill pill. No need to jump to conclusions yet. I grew up in that area in the shadow of these refineries and chemical plants. Each year there were a handful of explosions, major leaks, lightning strikes of storage tanks, etc. It happens. Can't say yet whether its an accident(most likely) or sabotage(a chance), but there's no need to run in circles shouting "The sky is falling, the sky is falling." We'll know in time. How does jumping to a conclusion right now that it was terrorism make ANY difference?

[Nexus]

4 minor injuries. Thank goodness.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Yep. The DUmmies are out in force. All one of them.

[Jalapeno]

Here's a feel for how long this has been going on...I doubt the Bush's were involved in this...but 'you never know'...:

The Texas City explosion of 1947

During the morning of April 16, 1947 a seemingly fine rain of oily mist fell upon Galveston, Texas while in Houston a rumbling reminiscent of a small earthquake was felt. What the inhabitants of these cities didn’t know at the time was that a giant explosion and fire had ripped though the booming town of Texas City.

As dawn broke upon Texas City that day its citizens began to enjoy what seemed to be a beautiful spring day. A short time later many would believe the end of the world was upon them. For many it was.

Anchored in the harbor of Texas City that morning was a cargo ship named the “Grand Camp.” In its holds was tons of an ammonium nitrate fertilizer that was to be shipped to Europe. There has been much speculation over the years as to what caused the initial fire upon the Grand Camp but fifty-three years later there has been no definitive answer.

Texas City in 1947 was a booming town whose many residents worked in the nearby refineries and chemical plants. It also was a place with a small town air in which everyone was a friend with everyone else and each knew the business of the other. On April 16th word spread through out the community about the fire upon the Grand Camp and the “pretty orange color that was coming from the black smoke.” As with any accident or fire a crowd of onlookers appeared to watch the Texas City firefighters in action. As word of the fire traveled, the crowd of onlookers grew in number.

The Grand Camp’s crew and possibly the harbor crews knew that the ship was carrying the highly explosive ammonium nitrate but the crowds didn’t or if they did, they were not aware of its highly volatile condition. Of course the standard procedure for dealing with a dangerously burning ship was to tow it by tug as far from the harbor as possible. For some reason this didn’t happen and at 9:00a.m. “The Texas City Disaster” as it will forever be remembered happened.

At 9:00 there was an explosion and a giant column of black smoke rose approximately 2,000 feet into the air. A mere ten to fifteen seconds later a second explosion rocked the ship, which created a violent shockwave, and fire quickly engulfed the Monsanto Chemical Plant in flames due to broken gas lines and containers. Within these few seconds almost the entire Texas City Fire Department was killed as well as the hoards of civilians and children still standing near the docks watching the excitement.

The industrial complexes around the Texas City area were at that time (and still are) connected by pipelines that caused the fires and explosions at the Monsanto plant to quickly spread to the surrounding plants. As at Monsanto entire buildings collapsed trapping workers within the flaming inferno.

Although the shockwave caused a displacement of the water in the harbor and created a small tidal wave that washed inland over one hundred and fifty feet, it did little to save the people from the fires.

News of the explosion quickly spread to Galveston, Houston, Conroe, La Port and Pasadena. Firefighters and police officers from all these towns went to aid in the work at Texas City and by dusk the town was full of rescue workers. Ambulances from all over the area were making repeated trips to John Sealy in Galveston as well as Ben Taub and other hospitals in Houston.

By night though new fears arose as another ship, the “High Flyer” had been burning all day since the original explosion and word was reaching the workers and towns people that she was carrying sulfur and a cargo hold full of ammonium nitrate. All during the day tugs had tried in vain to move her, all to no avail.

The fear of another explosion didn’t keep the rescue workers from removing the injured from the harbor and Montesano areas until 1:00 a.m. when all workers were ordered away. At 1:10 a.m. the High Flyer exploded with greater force than any by the Grand Camp.

As the High Flyer exploded she took another ship, the “Wilson B. Keene,” with her. A concrete warehouse and a grain elevator went up in even more fires and explosions.

On April 16, 1947 the town of Texas City had 16,000 registered inhabitants but by the time the last body was found a month later, six hundred were known dead. The exact number will never be known as many of the victims were incinerated in the blast and there were no remains to be found.

My wife’s father, William Brock was one of the first rescue workers from Houston to reach the scene on April 16th and can be seen in many of the Houston Post newspaper photos that showed scenes of the ruins and rescue work. He told stories of finding a shoe that still had the foot in it but no other part of the body was to be found. Another story told of how he came across a naked man who had been burned black over his entire body.

Mr. and Mrs. Brock both told how he, one of his brothers who was also with the Harris County Sheriff’s Dept. and so many others worked for days in Texas City with little rest or food.

The explosions devastated the town of Texas City. Some reports say there wasn’t a family in the town that didn’t suffer in some way from the disaster, be it a family member’s death, injury or even damage to their home or business.

The fires would continue to burn for a full week and of the six hundred dead, sixty-three would never be identified. Most of these were too badly burned for anyone to recognize them. For these unclaimed bodies, local mortuaries donated cypress caskets and on June 22, 1947 they were laid to rest by various pastors in the area in numbered grave that the city provided. Their pallbearers were members of the veteran’s organizations, labor unions and volunteer firemen. Today there is a monument in honor of the dead.

Written by David Perry