DEVELOPING: A spokesman for Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said eight people had been injured during the fire.
sent black smoke billowing along Texas State Highway 225 and drew an enormous response from emergency workers. The smoke plume was so big it was spotted by satellites in space.Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographerA spokesman for Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said eight people had been injured during the fire. Five of those people had been transported by ambulance and three transported themselves to Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital.
Despite the heavy smoke in the air, officials said they were confident in their decision to never tell people to take shelter from the smoke. At a 6 p.m. press conference, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said there had been no off-site impacts from the fire at the Shell Chemical plant. Nothing at the plant exploded, but something did ignite while workers were doing “routine maintenance,” Gonzalez said.“These things are always scary when they initially happen,” Gonzalez said. “We’re trying to get the best information that we can.”
They stood across the freeway from the explosion for over an hour and Srivastava said they saw “a litany of school buses” pass, while other residents got out of their cars to take video of the plume. "We didn't see anything initially…then we started hearing people yell say,"Hey, get out,'" he told a Houston Chronicle reporter."Then we turned the corner to go to the stairs and you could just see the flames burst up... I was hoping it didn’t explode as we were running down the stairs…luckily it didn't."
Once experts know which section of the plant saw the explosion they will be able to identify potential contaminants, according to University of Houston VP of Energy and Innovation Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti.
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