[LOC1]

From local channel 13, this appears to be a furnace fire in a chemical processing unit at BP-Amoco refinery/chemical plant in Texas city. This may be a steam cracking furnace used to produce olefins (ethylene, propylene, etc). Seem to remember that facility has steam cracking capability. If so, the furnaces operate at moderately high temperatures and pressures. A split tube could lead to this type of incident, but way too early to tell if that is the case. There do not seem to be any injuries. People on the phone in the neighborhood are calm. My initial reaction is that this is an industrial accident similar to the one at the Phillips chemical plant in Houston a few years ago, but with none of the injuries that occurred in that incident.

[RBroadfoot]

BP's steam crackers are in Chocolate Bayou, not Texas City.

[rickylc]

Thanks for the info.

Is it unusual to have 4 explosions and no one hurt?

Do these things usually happen away from where people are working?

My first thought would be somebody screwed up if this is an industrial accident and would have been in proximity of the explosion. I have no idea of the workings of one of these plants.