Suprised there isn’t a thread about this. Walked out my door this morning (galleria area) and the air smelt funny, noticed while I was driving a huge block of what I thought was storm clouds across the sky, turns out it’s toxic smoke from the fires. This is scary, and sad. https://abc13.com/big-deer-park-fire-could-take-2-days-to-burn-out/5202297/ https://abc13.com/whats-burning-in-the-tanks-at-the-itc-plant-in-deer-park/5202677/
Saw it near downtown and in League City. Didn't know what it was, but it was clear something was burning down. It was a big black wound stretching from the Eastern horizon across to the West. The sky was bifurcated by God's black Sharpie. Glad I didn't have to drive out 225.
Chemical plants preach safety so much it's nauseating. I saw the cloud from the Astrodome area. It was huge. Local neighborhoods were instructed to stay indoors for a while. Hopefully not too big of a waste.
I grew up in DP and my mom still lives there. I went over to her house yesterday and nobody in the community seems the least bit concerned about it. Theyre even having school today. Hopefully they get it under control before it turns into something even worse.
One of my co-workers said that his friend that works for the fire department said that they have lost 3 fire trucks fighting this fire. Trucks were too close to the fire.
I saw the local news saying it was nothing to worry about and that there was no danger because the cloud is rising too high to be a problem I don't know if I believe that . .. . I think I would have a hotel on the west side Rocket River
At this point all they can do is try to prevent further spreading. I read that there was a significant loss in water pressure last night that hampered efforts and set them back a bit.
I work on the ship channel about 5-7 miles from it. It's really bad today, worse than yesterday due to the lower cloud ceiling.That Channel 2 reporter yesterday asking why the air measurement reading things were "down for maintenance" at this certain time owned the Deer Park speaker and the Plant's as well. There are going to be a TON of lawsuits over this as nobody knows what is really in the air. If Abbot could do one damn thing while in office correctly, it would be to heavily scrutinize all chemical plants along the ship channel and make sure all air quality was checked daily/weekly. These places are getting away with anything that they want. He won't though because of the Lobbyist money and he needs shinier wheels. This is yesterday- This is today as they ran out of water to fight it last night and it grew bigger. Now the cloud is right over my building. Our sun for today. My gorgeous view out of my office window. War East Side work.
Thinking ahead 2 weeks they start playing Region 3 soccer playoffs @ the Deer Park stadium, they should evac it to Katy..
I read somewhere that this terminal was clearly not prepared for this. They had an emergency plan on file with the city but it was only for pipeline fires, not tank fires. I think as time goes on people will dig and find out there was some serious negligence related to all this and there will be a great many lawsuits, real and exaggerated.
Is this the superhero power making smoke or the cancer type? But in all seriousness, went to my parents house on Sunday and that smoke was very concerning. You can't convince me to say the air is fine and this fire won't be put out till Thursday. I can see it from downtown work location nearby Minute Maid.
