Blaze reignites, is put out at Texas City substation

A blaze that broke out at a Texas City substation owned by CenterPoint Energy reignited Wednesday but was swiftly brought under control by fire crews.

The second fire started due to the high temperature of a transformer that had exploded and caught fire the previous day, said a spokeswoman for the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality.

Fire crews from Texas City and San Leon responded and put out the fire. Firefighters were staying at the substation in an attempt to keep the transformer cooled and prevent any fires from igniting.

The first fire resulted in a spill of mineral oil; CenterPoint has contracted with a third party to perform cleanup.

The fire did not cause any power interruptions, CenterPoint Energy spokeswoman Alicia Dixon said, and no injuries had been reported.

“The fire did reignite this morning, and that could happen again from time to time over the next day or so, due to the heat of the equipment caused by yesterday’s fire,” Dixon said, adding that it’s too soon to determine a cause because the equipment at the substation remained too hot to investigate.

Dixon said that there were “no concerns” about air quality from the fire because the mineral oil in the exploded transformers was a “light refined oil.”

The initial Air Emission Event report filed by the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality noted that the fire Tuesday “was not a result of poor design, poor operation, or poor maintenance practices.” The fire did cause the release of an estimated 581 pounds of sulfur dioxide, well above the emissions limit of 54.25 pounds per hour.

TCEQ will investigate this incident, which will include an evaluation of any impacts from the fire at the site, and oversee the cleanup. CenterPoint Energy has up to 30 working days from the end of the event to provide written information about it to the agency.