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In this photo, taken Tuesday, smoke rises from a fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Co. near the Carpenter Elementary School in Deer Park, Texas. The fire briefly reignited on Friday.
Jeffrey Fountain / AP
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Jeffrey Fountain / AP
In this photo, taken Tuesday, smoke rises from a fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Co. near the Carpenter Elementary School in Deer Park, Texas. The fire briefly reignited on Friday.
Jeffrey Fountain / AP
A fire at a petrochemical plant outside Houston briefly resumed Friday, sending another plume of black smoke to a site where a fire had broken out earlier this week. The fire was preceded by a chemical spill in the Houston Ship Channel.
Friday afternoon, the fire of a storage facility operated by Intercontinental Terminals Co. in the city of Deer Park, just east of Houston, seemed to have been controlled, according to local reports. The incident delayed cleanup efforts from the initial fire that had been extinguished Wednesday after local authorities issued on-site protection alerts to residents in the area. As a result of this fire, the Environmental Protection Agency detected high levels of benzene.
The cause of the Friday fire is still unknown. There are no reported injuries.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Intercontinental Terminals for violating national clean air laws.
"The ITC has a history of environmental violations and this latest incident is particularly troubling and frightening," Paxton said in a statement. "No business can disrupt lives and endanger public health and safety."
Paxton described the impact of the initial fire and the subsequent release of airborne chemicals:
"The fire caused the release of several airborne contaminants, including benzene.Most of the chemicals identified in the fire are used in the production of gasoline, and short-term exposure to their fumes can cause fatigue, dizziness. Two times this week, residents of Deer Park and neighboring Galena Park were invited to stay at home due to air quality issues, which also prompted the Deer Park DSI. and several other districts to cancel classes for several days. "
The fire that broke out on Friday was caused by a breach in a containment wall around the chemical spill storage yard and prompted the coastguard to temporarily suspend traffic in a portion of the Houston Ship Channel, site of the the most active petrochemical port in the country.
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