Explosion and Fire at Texas City Chemical Plant

[i_dont_chat]

Channel 13, Houston, Texas, just reported a series of 4 explosions and a large fire at Amoco Chemical Company in Texas City -- I think it is called BP now.

My mother in TC felt 2 of the blasts. Plant is at Highway 146 and Texas Avenue.

[WestCoastGal]

I hope they are able to contain this quickly so the fumes don't continue to blow into populated areas. Even if, as some say, they are not toxic they are irritants and those with lung or breathing problems will suffer.

Los Angeles harbor has these things blow up every now and then and they take awhile to control. Those are almost always gasoline tanks though.

[jpsb]

139 was for you too.

[GalvestonGal.com]

I'm going upstairs to watch the 10'clock news. Will post anything if it changes.

[jungleboy]

Did you Uncle mention what part of the building he was refering to?

[Cold Heat]

OK, actually, the proceedure is that everyone goes to work on cleanup and damage control.

Overtime!

[jpsb]

cool, galvestonGal.com from radiocitysanleon.com

[jpsb]

Oh No!

[Army Air Corps]

No, I told him where news reports stated that the fires were burning. He made a few comments and then decided to call his friends who managed that facility before the BP takeover.

[Cold Heat]

Yes! Money!

[jungleboy]

post # 139 ..BEST POST OF THE DAY!... I SALUTE!

[olde north church]

There was an "America Undercover" HBO documentary re:OSHA "situations" where they showed various serious accidents of this type and the devestation and death.

[Cold Heat]

There are more people killed in the chicken, and foods business from OSHA violations.

Refineries have a pretty good safety record by comparison.IMO

Safety is a big concern and they have the money.

[SteelTrap]

You bet. What I know so far is coinciding with news reports. Boiler related failure. As soon as I hear anything new I'll post it. May be tomorrow 'cause as you may imagine, they are a bit preoccupied at the moment...:)

[steve86]

Anybody want to take a guess at what oil futures are going to do tomorrow in response?

They're open now. Up a little but wouldn't be related to this.

http://finance.yahoo.com/m2?u

[steve86]

Sorry, I gave the wrong URL.

Crude futures usually appear toward the bottom:

http://www.mrci.com/qpnight.asp

[ntnychik]

More news here: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/print_033004_local_explosion.html

[WestCoastGal]

Thank you, if you find out anything please ping me and TexKat. We are keeping tabs on anything suspicious in the Texas area.

[txhurl]

Watching this.

[potlatch]

I grew up in Texas City. My brother is a Chemical Engineer at that plant. I called him when I heard the news and my sister in law said he had been called back to the plant.

My Father was head of Chemical Engineering at Monsanto, now Sterling, in Texas City. The Texas City blast in 1947 just about blew the town up.

[Walkingfeather]

I remember reading a history of the submarine war between the US and germany. I read one account of a German u boat capt. who surfaced right outside coney island he was stunned that our lights were blazing on in the city which allows perfect silouets to shoot merchant vessels. They sunk TONS AND TONS of merchant vessels and the govt. said. they were all accidents. I think I have read about 5 or 6 chemical plant fires here on FR in the last 2 years or so. Me thinks the same thing is happening here.