Houston Suburb Sees Wave of Sickness as Disaster Intensifies

(Bloomberg) -- About 700 people sought treatment for nausea, headaches and other symptoms in the chemical disaster zone east of Houston, with 15 of the most-severe cases loaded onto ambulances and hauled to hospital emergency rooms.

The wave of sickness sweeping the industrial suburb of Deer Park and neighboring communities near Intercontinental Terminals Co.’s chemical storage complex was evident Friday at an ad-hoc clinic set up after the March 17 fire and subsequent benzene releases. The 15 hospitalized patients were suffering serious respiratory difficulties, said Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health.

That tally only included people who sought help at the clinic in Deer Park, which is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of downtown Houston. No firm numbers were available from local authorities on how many more across the metropolitan area took themselves to hospitals or were rescued at home by paramedics.

On Friday afternoon, the disaster site temporarily reignited, with multiple sections of the complex belching smoke and flames, and sending a new black plume over the fourth-largest U.S. city.

The latest blaze erupted just hours after a wall holding back almost a million gallons of toxic, flammable liquids collapsed, and just two days after the original conflagration was suppressed. Intercontinental, a unit of Japan’s Mitsui & Co., said two tanks and a drainage ditch were alight before firefighters suppressed the flames about 80 minutes later.

At least one of the tanks involved in the new blaze contained xylene, a toxic byproduct of the oil-refining process. Deer Park officials said on Twitter they were holding off on ordering residents to shut windows and remain indoors. Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit accusing ITC of violating clean-air laws.

People at nearby industrial sites and a state war memorial had already been warned to take cover when the key containment wall failed, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard to shut part of the Houston Ship Channel, which abuts ITC’s complex. The channel is one of the busiest commercial shipping facilities in North America, connecting Houston’s manufacturing and oil-refining nexus to Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

Although the ship channel is a key maritime thoroughfare, it’s not a source of drinking water for Houston or its suburbs. After the wall failed, officials issued take-shelter warnings to neighboring companies and visitors to the San Jacinto battlefield, site of the 1836 fight that won Texas independence from Mexico.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been testing water samples from the so-called containment area surrounding the tanks that burned. Adam Adams, a coordinator for the agency, said earlier this week that results would be released Friday; several calls to the EPA’s regional office in Dallas were not returned.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board announced late Thursday it will be investigating the blaze. The Texas National Guard dispatched troops to assist local authorities with air monitoring after cancer-causing benzene wafted across the area, prompting take-shelter alerts and road closures.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.