A two-alarm fire broke out around 4p.m. Wednesday at the K-Solv facility in Channelview. Residents in the area stated they heard loud noises as a huge plume of black smoke fill the air.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the fire was extinguished around 7 p.m. A shelter-in-place order that was issued for residents in Lakeside Park Estates and Lakeview Homes has now been lifted, Hidalgo said.
Rachel Moreno with the Harris County Fire Marshall’s office said the building is owned by K-Solv, a chemical distribution company.
According to K-Solv, the fire started during a drum transfer operation, which is what they call the process of transferring a product from a drum to a smaller container. Mikie Sopczak, the director of environmental health, safety, and security for K-Solv said during the transfer there was an ignition source that caused an intense fire.
All of 95 employees who were inside the facility during the fire are safe and accounted for.
At this time company officials do not know what chemicals were burned during the fire.
“Nobody has been able to physically go to where the source of the fire was started,” Sopczak said.
Air monitoring is taking place, with no actionable levels.
"If you remember during ITC fire, we scrambled. We had to bring contractors from out of town to monitor our air. This time we had it ready as soon as the fire started, we had a reading. Since then we've continued to do readings but we havent identified any elevated levels that would be of concern to health," Judge Hidalgo said.
Officials did state that foam blankets are being used to prevent reignition.
