Large fire at Houston chemical plant expected to burn for days

[Sgt Meowenstein]

An Aggie was making out with his girl friend, and she got so hot and bothered she said "Oh baby, kiss me where it smells". So he drove her to Pasadena.

:lamo

Aggie jokes. That brings me back.

 

[PIPEWRENCH]

Personally I think it's because they're cutting too many corners.

I had so many friends that worked at different refineries tell me so many different stories I think there are a million reasons these places blow up. The fact is what they do is extremely dangerous. When you have thousands of people in the process all it takes is one person hung over, sick, or fighting with their spouse all night and a mistake is made.
They basically are cooking volatile liquids. Do I need to say any more. I had union workers blaming non union. I here the upper management cutting corners. Upper management blames inept labor. I would say all is probably true to some extent and every so often there is a major problem.

We had a dynamite factory here in PA when I was growing up. Every year or so the place blew up. Then you see the adds in the big city papers. Great job available high pay we train. What they didn't put in the article is nobody retires from this factory. Just like the refineries they sectioned everything off so a mistake only took out a small section of the overall facility. They accepted the fact that people will make mistakes and when volatile chemicals are involved people will die.

 

[PIPEWRENCH]

trump and his goons say "regulation" and OSHA kills jobs, so it burns

Trump's fault. He passed regulations telling them to blow up their plant so they don't make any money. When Obama was in office and the place blew up it was Bush's fault. When Clinton was in office and it blew up it was Bush seniors fault. We are well aware of the blame game and all the prejudice views.

 

[ralphcdp]

Just fold your hands in your lap and accept?

US citizens, the dumb/brainwashed ones have to know how much evil their governments do. There are many open minded, right thinking ones who d o know.

 

[PIPEWRENCH]

I’m originally from that area. One of the towns mentioned in the article, Pasadena, was always colorfully known as “Stinkadena” by the locals for all of the chemical “smoke”

It has been that way since the 60's when I was a kid. Remember all the smoke stacks in the past burning like giant candles all over the place.

 

[danarhea]

I seem to remember times in my past (I lived in N.E. Houston during my first 22 years,) where there have been explosions and fires down in that neck of the woods before. I think, back in '47, Texas City was blown off the map. I mean, it's an area heavily invested in the petroleum industry. One can reasonably expect, if by Murphy's Law if nothing else, this will happen from time to time.

We used to call Pasadena, 'Stinkadena.'

My high school played against Deer Park High School like forever. You live southwest of Deer Park? You can't be too far from salt water. (I'd be fishin' myself.)

Also, I know a little about HVAC myself. But now I'm the guy who farms out all that work to companie's like your's.

I spent my early 20's operating chillers and running highrises around the Galleria area.

I miss those days.

We wouldn't mind being your service company, but with you being way up there in Wisconsin, I don't think you'd be too crazy about the $3,000.00 service calls. :mrgreen:

 

[Saladin4]

Trump's fault. He passed regulations telling them to blow up their plant so they don't make any money. When Obama was in office and the place blew up it was Bush's fault. When Clinton was in office and it blew up it was Bush seniors fault. We are well aware of the blame game and all the prejudice views.

Nah trump and his goons say cut regulations, safety standards, the EPA....Let it burn

 

[BWG]

It has been that way since the 60's when I was a kid. Remember all the smoke stacks in the past burning like giant candles all over the place.

View attachment 67252944

Uh, you realize that photo is NOT along the Houston Ship Channel? Hint; Mountains.

And they're not smoke stacks, they're flares and only are ignited when there is an upset at the facility to burn off excess product, so as to minimize an explosion.

Otherwise, yes in the 60's companies pretty much did what they wanted with a minimal slap on the wrist.

Then along came regulations, EPA, OSHA, unions, etc.

 

[dcsports]

That's why I started buying Electric Cars. I no longer want to support these industries. My renewable energy surplus is now gone, but I'll work through that. I'll probably install more PVs...

Where do you think electricity comes from?

 

[Media_Truth]

Where do you think electricity comes from?

Mine comes from my backyard --- I have solar PVs and a residential wind turbine. Very little United States electricity is generated from the burning of oil.

 

[SLC]

I seem to remember times in my past (I lived in N.E. Houston during my first 22 years,) where there have been explosions and fires down in that neck of the woods before. I think, back in '47, Texas City was blown off the map. I mean, it's an area heavily invested in the petroleum industry. One can reasonably expect, if by Murphy's Law if nothing else, this will happen from time to time.

We used to call Pasadena, 'Stinkadena.'

My high school played against Deer Park High School like forever. You live southwest of Deer Park? You can't be too far from salt water. (I'd be fishin' myself.)

Also, I know a little about HVAC myself. But now I'm the guy who farms out all that work to companie's like your's.

I spent my early 20's operating chillers and running highrises around the Galleria area.

I miss those days.

Texas City was due to Ammonia Nitrate fertilizer not petroleum.

 

[SLC]

Mine comes from my backyard --- I have solar PVs and a residential wind turbine. Very little United States electricity is generated from the burning of oil.

No but a hell of a lot of it comes from natural gas. Where do you think the plastic in your electric car came from?

 

[SLC]

I grew up in Orange Texas about 100 miles east of Pasadena Texas. We had a road named Chemical Rrow. It had 5 or 6 major chemical plants on it. I remember one night on blew up and it broke windows in our house 2 miles away. A lot of people drove by the plants on Chemical Row to see the damage. My dad worked at DuPont and it did not blow up but he knew how explosive the plant could be. He would not drive by the chemical plants. We climbed on to our roof an watched the burning plant from a safe distance. All the waste flares were lit up that night in all the chemical plants. They lit the sky up.

 

[PIPEWRENCH]

Uh, you realize that photo is NOT along the Houston Ship Channel? Hint; Mountains.

And they're not smoke stacks, they're flares and only are ignited when there is an upset at the facility to burn off excess product, so as to minimize an explosion.

Otherwise, yes in the 60's companies pretty much did what they wanted with a minimal slap on the wrist.

Then along came regulations, EPA, OSHA, unions, etc.

Yes I am aware. I couldn't think of the word flares at the moment. They don't have them burning anymore. Now those gases are sold for money. They used to burn all the time when I was a kid. I was just looking for a picture that showed what they used to look like.

 

[dcsports]

Mine comes from my backyard --- I have solar PVs and a residential wind turbine. Very little United States electricity is generated from the burning of oil.

Most electricity does come from the burning of petroleum products, and I'll bet you are still tied into the grid. Virtually all goods and services (including your solar panels and wind turban) were produced and delivered using petroleum products.

 

[Thoreau72]

Most electricity does come from the burning of petroleum products, and I'll bet you are still tied into the grid. Virtually all goods and services (including your solar panels and wind turban) were produced and delivered using petroleum products.

Change usually happens slowly.

 

[Captain America]

We wouldn't mind being your service company, but with you being way up there in Wisconsin, I don't think you'd be too crazy about the $3,000.00 service calls. :mrgreen:

Well, these people up here ain't cheap. I was billed almost 84k for last year's HVAC. (I still came in 6k under budget though. Yay me!)

 

[danarhea]

UPDATE: More breaking news. Elevated levels of benzene have been found in the air. A shelter in place order has been issued for Deer Park, Galena Park, and areas of Pasadena.

 

[dcsports]

UPDATE: More breaking news. Elevated levels of benzene have been found in the air. A shelter in place order has been issued for Deer Park, Galena Park, and areas of Pasadena.

It has been crazy. Just to expand a bit.... the two chemicals burning before weren't considered to be significantly toxic -- not good to breath the smoke, but not poisonous either. Fire was out yesterday morning, then a fireball happened at one of the burned out tanks later in the day - and was extinguished. Now they are detecting Benzene, which is very toxic, so that's something new. I'm normally not a fan of big government, but this is a case where officials need to step in and take control of the situation.

It makes me really upset about the chain of events that put a 26 year old in her first job as the head of our county, and top disaster response official for the region. She looks absolutely lost (which she is), and inspires no confidence. Thankfully, she is relying on professionals around her, but it makes me concerned about hurricane season.

 

[Media_Truth]

Most electricity does come from the burning of petroleum products, and I'll bet you are still tied into the grid. Virtually all goods and services (including your solar panels and wind turban) were produced and delivered using petroleum products.

You know, I bicycled to and from work for 30 years. People used to tell me that I used roads that were paved with oil. They told me my tires were manufactured with oil. My friend, it's a matter of degrees!

If I change out 2 bicycle tires every year, and you weigh that against somebody who burns 20 gallons of gasoline per week (over 1000 gallons per year) - you're argument comes up very-very short. Same applies to renewables, and their powering of electric cars.

 

[danarhea]

Another update. Damn thing caught fire again yesterday (Friday). That's the third time. It was put out in a couple of hours this time, though. Damn thing has a mind of it's own. LOL.