Devastating Explosions in Texas During Massive August Heatwave Leave Pollution and Toxic Air in Their Wake
Temperatures in Central Texas exceeded 110° F over several weeks leading to dangerous combustion of toxic substances, exposure of the public to hazardous pollution
Texas has been experiencing extreme drought over the last year or more, and the recent “heat dome” that settled over Texas in August exacerbated already dangerous climate conditions in the region. During the debilitating heatwave that descended on Texas during the month of August, at least two highly hazardous explosions combusted in central Texas, in the heart of the heat-affected area. The towns of San Saba, northwest of Austin, and Bartlett, a few miles south of Temple, Texas experienced explosions of warehouses containing toxic chemicals within a week of each other during the scorching heatwave.
San Saba is known as a hub for the pecan growing region of Texas. On Thursday, August 17, a massive fire broke out at a petroleum storage unit at a pecan plant and according to San Saba Emergency Management, the fire started when the plastic and petroleum in storage ignited due to high temperatures, as the temperature registered 110°F. This caused huge flames and heavy, thick, black smoke to be seen from miles away. Hazmat crews responded. One firefighter was treated by EMS on-scene.
The inferno was reported around 2:00 in the afternoon according to San Saba Police Chief John Bauer, who said investigators are still working to determine how the fire erupted.
“Foul play is not suspected at this time,” Bauer said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warns that any combustible material can burn rapidly when in a finely divided form. If such a dust is suspended in air in the right concentration, under certain conditions, it can become explosible. Even materials that do not burn in larger pieces (such as aluminum or iron), given the proper conditions, can be explosible in dust form.
The structure fire was burning near U.S. Highway 190 across the highway from the Chase Pecan company, and near the Heart of Texas Propane facility.
Lee Murray, San Saba Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief, said firefighters encountered a “large, black blob of smoke” when they arrived at the scene. He said cardboard boxes and plastic bags were torched at the property.
Residents near the scene of the fire were evacuated while crews worked to extinguish the blaze, which burned about five acres, according to Murray.
KWTX-TV in Waco reported that a family that lives less than five minutes away from where the fire started says they could feel the affect of the fire from miles away.
“I’ve got COPD, and I’m going to the doctor once a week as it is and a couple of puffs of that stuff, I probably would have been going to the doctor. I could smell it a little bit and at one point my throat was burning just a little bit,” says James May, a San Saba resident told KWTX.
The priority at the time was to keep the flames from spreading to a neighboring hay field.
By about 3:30 p.m., firefighters had contained the blaze but remained at the scene to extinguish hot spots.
On Sunday night, August 20, a three-alarm fire destroyed a fertilizer plant in the Williamson County town of Bartlett, a few miles south of Temple, Texas.
The blaze started at around 8:30 p.m. at the American Plant Food facility on State Highway 95. Local officials said the structure is a total loss. Fire officials reported that the fertilizer plant blaze started as a chemical fire, and crews wouldn’t use water on the fire until the following morning to completely extinguish the flames.
Bartlett officials said in a social media post that the fire at American Plant Food Corporation was contained and controlled but it continued to burn overnight.
Though the plant contained chemicals used in fertilizer production, authorities said no materials present would cause an explosion, and the structure was allowed to burn while crews took preventative measures to prevent the fire from spreading.
In addition to the main fire, a six-acre grass fire broke out behind the plant, which was contained by 3:30 a.m. Fire crews remained on site throughout the night to monitor for spot fires. The Williamson County Fire Marshal's Office is now investigating the cause.
No one was in the building at the time, and there were no deaths or injuries. Hazardous materials crews were dispatched to the scene, and air quality monitoring began that night and is continung throughout the cleanup process, according to officials.
County officials closed the portions of SH 95 and urged Bartlett residents to stay away from the scene and remain indoors as much as possible due to potential shifting winds.
Clean-up is expected to take several weeks.
The CDC cautions that the force from an explosion from combustible dust particles can cause employee deaths, injuries, and destruction of entire buildings, and provides examples of three workers that were killed in a 2010 titanium dust explosion in West Virginia, and 14 workers that were killed in a 2008 sugar dust explosion in Georgia. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) identified 281 combustible dust incidents between 1980 and 2005 that led to the deaths of 119 workers, injured 718, and extensively damaged numerous industrial facilities.
A wide variety of materials that can be explosible in dust form exist in many industries. Examples of these materials include: food (e.g., candy, sugar, spice, starch, flour, feed), grain, tobacco, plastics, wood, paper, pulp, rubber, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coal, and metals such as aluminum, chromium, iron, magnesium, and zinc. These materials are used in a wide range of industries and processes, such as agriculture, chemical manufacturing, pharmaceutical production, furniture, textiles, fossil fuel power generation, recycling operations, and metal working and processing which includes additive manufacturing and 3D printing.
Local, state and federal emergency and environmental officials rarely tell the public the truth about the hazards or causes of explosions in their communities, for fear of creating a panic or a larger protest. Global warming (a/k/a climate change - yes, the planet is warming) which is indisputably brought on by capitalist’s barbaric actions in order to create a comfortable, cushy pillow of profit for themselves, will continue to create the conditions for hazardous explosions, forest fires, chemical releases and other toxic attacks on life on earth. It’s time for the working class to mobilize against capitalism.