On November 27, Wednesday, a fire erupted on a petrochemical plant in Port Neches, Texas, resulting to the injury of two plant employees and one contractor, who were transmitted to the Southeast Texas Regional Medical Centre and to Memorial Hermann in Houston for treatment.
Specifically, the explosion took place at the TPC Group Port Neches Operations site, approximately one mile of the Port Neches Motiva liquid bulk terminal. This incident marks the fourth fire taking place at a Texas chemical facility in 2019.
On the contrary to the three injured personnel, the rest of the plant’s workers were evacuated for safety and first responders began firefight efforts.
Following the incident, to improve the safety of people living nearby, Gov. Greg Abbott deployed increased police forces to augment patrols, whereas county officials ordered everyone living within a four mile radius to evacuate; The order of evacuation covers all of Port Neches, Groves, Nederland and the northern portion of Port Arthur.
Moreover, TPC informed that the first blast occurred in the facility’s south processing unit at a tank containing the gas butadiene, an intermediate chemical used for making synthetic materials like neoprene, nitrile rubber and ABS plastic. It is flammable, explosive and carcinogenic, but it dissipates and degrades rapidly in the environment.
The Group commented that
Teams have been dispatched to conduct air monitoring along the fence line of the facility and in surrounding neighborhoods through mutual aid.
TPC Group issued a statement noting that it remains focused on protecting the safety of responders and the public and minimizing any impact to the environment.
We encourage area residents to stay tuned to information from Jefferson County Emergency Management and local responders.
In summer, another fire on a plant took place, that time on one of ExxonMobil’s plant, as about 66 people suffered minor injuries.
