Harris County probes cause of fire at Channelview site.
Harris County’s new response systems saw a few hiccups
The investigation into the cause of the K-Solv chemical fire continued Thursday, as officials worked to confirm how exactly the fire at the Channelview industrial site started and what specifically burned.
For nearly three hours Wednesday, a dark plume billowed from the site, another reminder of the potential danger that residents near the Houston Ship Channel live with. The facility previously caught fire in 2007.
But the fire in this case triggered an emergency response from Harris County that reflected much change — albeit with some hiccups — since a string of chemical fires caught the county flatfooted two years ago.
Ironically, K-Solv Group specializes in environmental and disaster response. At a press conference Thursday, a spokesperson said the company’s experience prepared it to manage its own disaster, which he described as “a reality” of the business.
“We feel confident that … we can act responsibly to mitigate those hazards as quick as possible,” said Mikie Sopczak, director of environmental health, safety and security for K-Solv Group. “And I think you saw that yesterday.”
Still, Grace Tee Lewis of the Environmental Defense Fund said regulators need to continue to “take a prevention approach rather than a reaction approach” to be sure fires such as Wednesday’s don’t continue happening.
On Thursday, a clearer picture of what had occurred was emerging.
A call at 3:53 p.m. Wednesday alerted the Channelview Fire Department, Chief Ryan Thistle said. Responding firefighters saw the giant column of smoke and notified others.
As a precaution, fire officials called to evacuate the immediate area and issued a shelter-inplace order for nearby neighborhoods. Sheriff’s deputies helped notify residents; not everyone was informed, a communications gap that has come up repeatedly.
On site, some employees were working on the ship channel, where they clean and pre
pare barges for new loads. Bulk storage there did not catch fire. Employees escaped by boat.
Two separate warehouses that stored cleanup supplies burned. The company believes the fire began in one warehouse as a product was transferred from one small container, a tote, to another, a drum.
The fire was extinguished by 6:20 p.m., and officials put out a few hot spots overnight. Harris County Pollution Control said it did not receive a definite list of what compounds were there; the county was told two chemicals involved were toluene and xylene, both hazardous.
Sopczak noted the site was “receiving and sending shipments throughout the day, literally minute-to-minute, hour-tohour.”
By Thursday evening, Harris County Fire Marshal investigators had cleared the company to start cleanup except in one area of interest, a company statement said. A breach of fire-fighting water runoff into the sewer treatment facility had also been mitigated.
Enhanced response
Harris County Pollution Control dispatched a mobile air monitoring team that had been developed by an overhauled department after the days-long Intercontinental Terminals Co. fire in 2019 highlighted inadequate response capabilities.
Measurements were posted to the county’s website, as were those from a stationary monitor at River Terrace Park that was installed in January, part of an expanding county stationary monitoring network.
One hiccup: The stationary monitor has a device to capture samples for more specific testing. That device didn’t work because it was improperly sealed during a maintenance check, department spokesperson Dimetra Hamilton wrote in an email.
Benchmarks in the works
County benchmarks don’t yet exist for when the readings should trigger shelter-in-place or evacuation orders. The Houston Advanced Research Center, or HARC, is helping to develop those and hopes to finalize them by June.
The facility was not without past complaints. The county went to inspect the site 16 times between 2003 and 2016, Hamilton wrote. Ten visits were prompted by complaints, mostly about odors or smoke.
In April 2007, a tanker truck there caught fire as it was being loaded with xylene, according to online records from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
TCEQ investigated the site in 2017 and issued violation notices for failing to comply with a maximum allowable emissions rate for NOx, which contributes to ozone, and failing to prevent unauthorized outdoor burning and disposal of solid waste.
Still, its 10-year compliance history was considered “satisfactory,” TCEQ spokesperson Brian McGovern wrote in an email.