Authorities say nine people were taken to the hospital after a massive fire in Deer Park, Texas, at a Shell Chemical Plant that continued to burn Friday night.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said five people were transported for precautionary measures, mainly due to the heat. According to Scott Spiegel, spokesperson for Pct. 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, three others took themselves to the hospital. Shell tweeted a total of nine contractors were evaluated at the hospital, but have since been released.
Additionally, Gonzalez said the fire started because of a heat exchange between two heavy gas oils.
Earlier Friday afternoon a massive fire has been reported after an explosion at plant in Deer Park.
This is happening at a facility near Beltway 8 and SH 225. According to the facility's security, the fire started burning around 2:54 p.m. All employees were evacuated.
The City of Deer Park confirmed that there is no shelter-in-place order as of 4:04 p.m. The city said they are staying in communication with Shell as air quality monitoring is being done.
The location of the plant is in the block of 5900 SH-255.
Harris County Fire Marshal and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office are responding to the scene.
A spokesperson from the team at Community Awareness Emergency Response (CAER) system released the following statement:
“This is the Environmental Duty Representative at Shell Deer Park. We are currently experiencing fire within one of our units. The incident is being handled within the boundaries of this facility and there is no threat to the community form this incident. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
This is a developing story on KPRC.
