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Shop NowOne person was injured in a massive explosion and fire Wednesday afternoon, which happened at the INEOS Phenol plant in Pasadena, Texas. The blast shook buildings across the city and “sent a massive fireball into the air over parts of east Harris County.” Officials relate that there aren’t any exceptionally toxic aftereffects to worry about.
LPG explosion at chemical plant
According to reports, around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 22, a worker was “transferring liquid petroleum gas into a pipeline at the facility” when an explosion happened, instantly followed by a blazing fire. At this point, nobody is sure what exactly caused it.
The victim was transported to the hospital and is listed in “fair” condition. The Harris County Fire Marshal is conducting a full investigation.
Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia held a news conference to inform the public of the incident. “We don’t know exactly what did not happen right, but as we know, an explosion occurred.” They don’t know what happened wrong, either. What they do know is after the blast, “people reported feeling and hearing the boom in Pasadena and in Channelview, across the Houston Ship Channel.”
JUST IN: Massive explosion at Ineos Phenol CHEMICAL PLANT in Pasadena, Texas. — Multiple hazmat crews on the scene..
JOE’S AMERICA IS CRUMBLING BEFORE OUR EYES..
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) March 22, 2023
There was also a “plume of black smoke” which “drifted north and could be seen from downtown Houston.” While it might look scary, it’s nothing like the one which loomed over East Palestine, Ohio, after the Norfolk Southern disaster.
Houston Transtar cameras happened to catch the explosion as it happened. The fire which came along with the blast closed both the Sam Houston Tollway Ship Channel Bridge and part of Beltway 8.
Fire officials note that they had the blaze fully extinguished by 1:20 p.m. and assured there were “no known impacts to the community at large.” Nobody needs to worry about “chemicals leaking into the nearby waterway.”
A maker of phenol
INEOS happens to be a London-based company so it took until late afternoon for them to get a statement out explaining what they know. At “the time of the explosion and fire, liquid bulk trucks were delivering raw materials, specifically liquid petroleum gas.”
The facility makes phenol, a common plastic with a wide range of uses. For convenience, they also make the precursor chemical cumene. That’s the pipeline which was being filled.
“The LPG was a mixture of propylene and propane, a raw material used in the production of cumene,” the corporate headquarters state.
“During offloading of the LPG, for reasons that are unclear, the LPG ignited causing an explosion and subsequent fire. INEOS personnel immediately mustered and commenced firefighting operations.”
They know the black plume drifting up from the explosion looks bad but it wasn’t much worse than what comes off a barbecue grill. After the fire was extinguished, “air monitoring was conducted down wind of the facility by an independent, third-party monitoring company.”
The results “of the air monitoring showed no degradation in surrounding air quality.” They shut down the whole plant while they figure out how to prevent the incident from happening again.
