On Tuesday, May 19, an explosion followed by a fire took place at a tank farm adjacent to the Galveston Ship Channel led to two injuries, according to local sources.
Accordingly, loca media reported that it is possible a work crew was conducting welding work near a tank containing heavy crude at the Pelican Island Storage Terminal. The blast and subsequent fire affected only one tank.
After the fire, firefighting operations and teams from the Galveston Fire Department were using firefighting foam to suppress the flames.
In addition, the Texas A&M University campus at Galveston is near to the Pelican Island Storage Terminal, and it provided a shelter-in-place plan to protect those on campus.
Concluding, the Galveston Daily News commented that over the past seven years, the university has filed more than a dozen air quality complaints with state environmental regulators about emissions emanating from the terminal.
