Coast Guard aircrews conduct flyovers to assess the ports of Houston, Texas City, Freeport and Galveston, on August 31. That day, an explosion occurred at a chemical plant, leading to a lawsuit filed against the plant owner by first responders who claim they weren't warned about the toxic fumes. Photo by PO1 Patrick Kelley/U.S. Coast Guard/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Seven first responders who fell ill after responding to a chemical plant explosion during Hurricane Harvey in Houston filed a $1 million lawsuit Thursday against the plant owner for failing to warn them about the dangers in advance.

The responders accuse plant owner Arkema of ignoring "the foreseeable consequences of failing to prepare" and not warning them about the mandatory 1.5 mile evacuation around the perimeter of the plant in Crosby, Texas after an explosion emitted volatile chemical fumes, reported the Houston Chronicle.

"Although the explosions had occurred, no one from Arkema alerted the first responders who were manning the perimeter of the arbitrary mandatory evacuation area," lawyers said Thursday in a press release. "Immediately upon being exposed to the fumes from the explosions, and one by one, the police officers and first responders began to fall ill in the middle of the road."

"Emergency personnel arrived on scene, and even before exiting their vehicle, they became overcome by the fumes as well," the lawsuit states, according to the Washington Post. "The scene was nothing less than chaos. Police officers were doubled over vomiting, unable to breathe. Medical personnel, in their attempts to provide assistance to the officers, became overwhelmed and they too began to vomit and gasp for air."

Arkema, a French multimational company, denied the accusations.

"We reject any suggestion that we failed to warn of the danger of breathing the smoke from the fires at our site, or that we ever misled anyone," Arkema said in a statement. "To the contrary, we pleaded with the public, for their own safety, to respect the 1.5 mile evacuation zone imposed by the unified command well prior to any fire. We will vigorously defend a lawsuit that we believe is gravely mistaken."

Hurricane Harvey has brought new scrutiny of Arkema,which has 133 facilities in 50 countries, including 26 in the United States, according to CNBC.

RELATED Death toll over 60 as Harvey cleanup resumes

In February, the Houston plant was fined nearly $110,000 for 10 safety violations.

The violations were listed as "serious," meaning they would "most likely result in death or serious physical harm."

The company also recently told investors that its facilities are prone to "accidents, fires, explosions and pollution," which could potentially lead to lawsuits and compensation claims.</s>Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.</s>Seven first responders filed a lawsuit Thursday against Arkema, a chemical plant near Houston that exploded after Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters knocked out the plant’s power sources.

The suit, which also names three of the company’s executives, alleges the chemical plant did not adequately warn law enforcement or public health agencies of the imminent danger posed by the chemicals housed at the plant.

After Harvey travelled beyond Houston, residents began eyeing a new threat: the Arkema plant in Conroe, north of Houston.

As rumors of explosions and possible fires at the plant circled on social media, Rich Rowe, CEO of the North American branch of the company, admitted they had no way of preventing an explosion at the plant.

Residents near the plant were told to evacuate.

Despite admitting an explosion was imminent, the company continued to insist the chemicals housed at the plant were “noxious” but not toxic.

However, first responders — including law enforcement and firemen — who were on the scene when the explosion occurred, say they were sickened by the fumes. The event is described in the lawsuit:

Immediately upon being exposed to the fumes from the explosion, and one by one, the police officers and first responders began to fall ill in the middle of the road. Calls for medics were made, but still no one from Arkema warned of the toxic fumes in the air. Emergency medical personnel arrived on scene, and even before exiting their vehicle, they became overcome by the fumes as well. The scene was nothing less than chaos. Police officers were doubled over vomiting, unable to breathe. Medical personnel, in their attempts to provide assistance to the officers, became overwhelmed and they too began to vomit and gasp for air.

The company’s lobby, American Chemical Council, is also partially responsible for the delay in enacting the laws that would have assisted the first responders in doing their jobs safely.

After a chemical plant explosion devastated the city of West, Texas in 2013, the Obama administration passed legislation to prevent similar tragedies. The law, which was set to go into effect in March 2017, would have required Arkema to better communicate and coordinate with first responders after Harvey.

When President Donald Trump took office, lobbying groups, including American Chemical Council, pressed Republican politicians to delay the law.

With the law now scheduled to go into effect in February 2019, Arkema officials were able to withhold information from first responders, according to the lawsuit.

First responders who were faced with Arkema’s fallout say their lives and health were endangered by the company’s failure to provide them with the information they needed to safely do their jobs. They believe the company was negligent.

RELATED: Smoke from chemical plant explosion is “noxious” but not “toxic,” company says

Arkema denied the allegations in a statement provided to International Business Times:

We reject any suggestion that we failed to warn of the danger of breathing the smoke from the fires at our site, or that we ever misled anyone,” the statement explained. “To the contrary, we pleaded with the public, for their own safety, to respect the 1.5 mile evacuation zone imposed by the unified command well prior to any fire. We will vigorously defend a lawsuit that we believe is gravely mistaken.

The lawsuit seeks monetary relief of over $1 million.</s>A group of first responders exposed to smoke from a Crosby, Texas, chemical plant fire after Hurricane Harvey are suing the owner of the plant for more than $1 million, saying that they vomited and gasped for air in the middle of the road in a scene the suit describes as "nothing less than chaos."

The responders allege that the plant owner, Arkema, minimized the dangers of exposure to the fire and failed to warn the responders manning the perimeter of the mandatory 1.5 mile evacuation area to move further away from the fumes after the first of nine trailers full of volatile organic peroxide burst into flames in the early nighttime hours of Aug. 29.

"Immediately upon being exposed to the fumes from the explosion, and one by one, the police officers and first responders began to fall ill in the middle of the road," says the lawsuit, which was filed in a Harris County, Texas, court on Thursday. The responders' lawyer Mo Aziz said they initially saw no smoke in the darkness.

"Emergency personnel arrived on scene, and even before exiting their vehicle, they became overcome by the fumes as well," the lawsuit adds. "The scene was nothing less than chaos. Police officers were doubled over vomiting, unable to breathe. Medical personnel, in their attempts to provide assistance to the officers, became overwhelmed and they too began to vomit and gasp for air."

The lawsuit also said that some police officers, unable to abandon their vehicles with weapons in them, drove themselves to the nearest hospital. Other responders were taken by ambulance.

The company said it regretted that anyone suffered harm, particularly first responders.

"We reject any suggestion that we failed to warn of the danger of breathing the smoke from the fires at our site, or that we ever misled anyone," Arkema said in a statement. " To the contrary, we pleaded with the public, for their own safety, to respect the 1.5 mile evacuation zone imposed by the unified command well prior to any fire. We will vigorously defend a lawsuit that we believe is gravely mistaken."

The responders said they were at the 1.5 mile perimeter.

Separately, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday ordered Arkema, a French multinational company, to provide a detailed timeline of events and to respond within 10 days to a series of questions about the handling of organic peroxides, which are combustible if not kept refrigerated, the amount of chemical materials, and the measures taken in advance to guard against flooding and loss of electricity.

After the loss of refrigeration led to an evacuation of the plant, Arkema executives and the Harris County fire marshal's office warned people to stay at least 1.5 miles away, a distance the lawsuit calls "arbitrary."

Arkema and fire officials have avoided calling the smoke from the fires toxic.

The company initially called the smoke inhaled by police officers as a "non-toxic irritant." When pressed by reporters at an Aug 31 press conference Rich Rennard, president of Arkema's North American operations, said "the smoke is certainly noxious." But he added that toxicity is "a relative thing." And he said "it's not a chemical release that's happening, and I want to be clear about that."At another press conference, Rennard was asked whether responders should "consider that ash to be more dangerous than something from a campfire or normal fire?" He replied that "it's debris that would be similar to a house fire."

Asked on Aug. 31 about how dangerous the chemical fire was, Robert Royall, assistant chief of emergency operations for the Harris County Fire Marshal's office, told The Post: "That's really relative. If you're standing right next to something and you had a chemical release, it would probably be pretty dangerous. But we have a mile and half safety radius and there's nobody in that plant." He added, "You don't go stick your head in a barbecue pit or anything. You wouldn't want to breath that smoke in.''

The lawsuit was filed by Houston attorneys Kimberely Spurlock and Misty Hataway-Coné of Spurlock & Associates and MoAziz of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels, Agosto & Aziz. Collectively, they are representing a group of seven first responders who claim to have been injured from a release of toxic chemicals from the Arkema plant. About 15 responders were treated for exposure.

The suit accuses Arkema of negligence for failing to adequately prepare for an extreme flood, improperly storing chemicals at the plant, and not having a more reliable backup form of refrigeration.

The company has failed to answer questions from The Post about whether or not the backup diesel generators were elevated or whether they were resting on the floor of the plant, which eventually was under 6 feet of water.</s>- Houston-based attorneys Kimberley M. Spurlock and Misty A. Hataway-Coné of Spurlock & Associates, P.C. and Mo Aziz of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels, Agosto & Aziz are representing seven first responders who were injured from what they are referring to as a "release of toxic chemicals" on Aug. 31 from the Arkema, Inc. plant.

The attorneys released the following statement on Thursday:

In the early morning hours of August 31, 2017 at the Arkema plant in Crosby, Texas, the first of several explosions occurred as a result of the abandoned chemicals heating up and igniting. Although the explosions had occurred, no one from Arkema alerted the first responders who were manning the perimeter of the arbitrary mandatory evacuation area. Immediately upon being exposed to the fumes from the explosion, and one by one, the police officers and first responders began to fall ill in the middle of the road. Calls from medics were made, but still no one from Arkema warned of the toxic fumes in the air. Emergency medical personnel arrived on scene, and even before exiting their vehicle, they became overcome by the fumes as well.

The senior corporate communication manager for Arkema Inc. released the following statement on behalf of the company:

We deeply regret that anyone suffered harm as a result of the havoc wreaked on our plant by Hurricane Harvey, particularly first responders who worked with us side-by-side to keep the public safe.

 

 Our employees acted in the same honorable and heroic way that thousands of other citizens in Harris County did when confronted with an unprecedented tragedy. They did everything they could to protect the public, while fighting fast-rising flood waters that were 5 to 7 feet high at our plant. We totally cooperated with all first responders and the numerous regulatory agencies working with us to keep the public safe.

 

 We reject any suggestion that we failed to warn of the danger of breathing the smoke from the fires at our site, or that we ever misled anyone. To the contrary, we pleaded with the public, for their own safety, to respect the 1.5 mile evacuation zone imposed by the unified command well prior to any fire. We will vigorously defend a lawsuit that we believe is gravely mistaken.</s>HOUSTON -- Seven first responders who were hospitalized after the explosions last week at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby filed a lawsuit for at least $1 million on Thursday.

The lawsuit alleges that first responders who maintained part of an arbitrary 1.5-mile evacuation radius around the chemical facility were not informed by Arkema of the explosions early in the morning of Aug. 31. Those responders were injured from “a release of toxic chemicals,” the lawsuit says.

On Thursday, Kimberly Spurlock & Associates filed the lawsuit, which accuses one of the world’s largest chemical companies of gross negligence, in the Harris County Civil Courthouse.

As Hurricane Harvey dumped more than a trillion gallons of water across Southeast Texas, floods began to fill the Arkema plant in Crosby. Six feet of water caused the backup generators that kept chemicals at the plant cool to fail. The floodwater also forced an 11-person storm ride-out crew to evacuate the chemical facility on Aug. 29. They had to abandon nine containers filled with chemicals, despite knowing that the chemicals could explode.

Later, the company said it believed there were about half a million pounds of organic peroxides in the containers. Organic peroxides are stored at a cool temperature, around 30 degrees Fahrenheit. When those peroxides heat up, they break down, causing chemical reactions. Without the storm crew on site, the peroxides began to rise in temperatures.

Around 2 a.m. on Aug. 31, the chemicals heated to the point that the first explosion occurred, releasing smoke into the air.

“Immediately upon being exposed to the fumes from the explosion, and one by one, the police officers and first responders began to fall ill in the middle of the road,” the lawsuit states. “Calls for medics were made, but still no one from Arkema warned of the toxic fumes in the air.”

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office announced that 15 deputies went to the hospital after inhaling a “non-toxic irritant.”

The lawsuit states that the first responders were vomiting and unable to breathe. The plaintiffs are seeking damages based on that Arkema was negligent, among many things, of “failing to provide the public and first responders accurate information on the chemicals at risk of exploding.”

The suit also asked that the court grant a temporary restraining order to preserve any equipment, documents, manuals, photographs and video, communication, etc. by Arkema surrounding the Crosby plant.

MORE: Inside the confusion and contradictions surrounding the Arkema chemical explosion</s>Houston lawyers Misty Hataway-Cone and Kimberley Spurlock are suing the Arkema company for gross negligence, accusing the Crosby, Texas, plant of ignoring "the foreseeable consequences of failing to prepare" for the hurricane despite advanced warning of the storm’s destructive potential and past experiences with flooding. The plant lost its ability to cool heat-sensitive compounds contained in trailers filled with dangerous chemical compounds when it lost electricity, leaving the trailers susceptible to explosion.

A number of first responders were hospitalized on August 31 after being exposed to chemical fumes when the first of the plant’s nine trailers exploded. Officials said the explosion created a plume of smoke that reached 40 feet in the air.

Hathway-Cone describes a range of conditions the responders experienced, from "doubled over and vomiting, to the other end of it, chemical bronchitis," according to Click 2 Houston. She added, "It’s not something that should happen when you go to work to protect your community."

In a Thursday press release, lawyers said, "Although the explosions had occurred, no one from Arkema alerted the first responders who were manning the perimeter of the arbitrary mandatory evacuation area … Immediately upon being exposed to the fumes from the explosions, and one by one, the police officers and first responders began to fall ill in the middle of the road."

"The scene was nothing less than chaos," the suit claims, according to the Houston Chronicle. "Police officers were doubled over vomiting, unable to breathe."

Arkema released a statement expressing sympathy for the responders while denying that they were negligent. "We deeply regret that anyone suffered harm as a result of the havoc wreaked on our plant by Hurricane Harvey, particularly first responders who worked with us side-by-side to keep the public safe," the company wrote. "We reject any suggestion that we failed to warn of the danger of breathing the smoke from the fires at our site, or that we ever misled anyone." They argue to the contrary, that they "pleaded with the public to heed the 1.5 mile evacuation zone."</s>Well that was quick.

In the wake of the chemical explosion at the Arkema Inc. plant in Crosby, a handful of first responders who were exposed to noxious smoke have filed a lawsuit against the company in Harris County District Court.

When it became clear that the organic peroxide stored at the Arkema plant was going to degrade and explode after the plant was flooded, lost power and the backup generators gave out during Hurricane Harvey, Arkema employees informed local, state and federal officials of the situation and the National Guard swooped in and cleared everyone in a 1.5 mile radius from the area.

First responders remained on the perimeter of the plant and when the organic peroxide did begin to explode, sending a stream of black smoke 40 feet into the air, they got sick.

Rich Rowe, president and CEO of Arkema Inc., has acknowledged that much, reporting that Harris County sheriff's deputies and others were taken to the hospital, treated and released after exposure to the smoke, and making that exposure sound as casual as possible.

However, now a week after the first explosion — Arkema ultimately torched the whole load of organic peroxide on Monday because they didn't have any way to stop the peroxide from exploding without putting a lot of people at risk — seven first responders have filed a lawsuit against Arkema over the incident.

What's more intriguing is that the story they are telling in the suit is vastly different from how Rowe and company have spun the incident.

The plaintiffs acknowledge that Hurricane Harvey, a storm that rolled in and stalled over southeast Texas starting August 25, unleashing more than 50 inches of rain on much of the area, was devastating. It was the kind of disaster that gave businesses days of warning so that they could prepare.

"This has happened before," the lawsuit states. "As a matter of fact, this has happened so many times before that most industries, private businesses and even governmental agencies have put in place physical structures and written procedures to prevent harm and damage to their properties and the people in their communities."

But the plaintiffs maintain that Arkema failed to do this, so when the site flooded and Arkema employees were forced to evacuate, they left behind volatile toxic chemicals (more than 500,000 gallons of organic peroxide) that would definitely ignite if they were not refrigerated.

The suit goes even further, contending that Arkema employees knew the chemicals would explode because the same thing had happened at the plant before, as a citation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had documented. Despite this, Arkema still neglected to come up with a back-up plan, like a back-up refrigeration system, to ensure the chemicals would be kept cool in the event of some major disaster, like a hurricane.

The plaintiffs also maintain Arkema was less than forthcoming on August 31 when the chemicals actually began to ignite. On the perimeter of the 1.5-mile evacuation radius, police and first responders got sick as they were exposed to the fumes. Then the emergency medics arrived and started feeling the effects of the fumes and smoke from the chemicals before even leaving their vehicles, according to the lawsuit.

The initial explanation — that some officers and other personnel on the scene were being hit by the fumes but some of it was so mild that some of the officers even drove themselves to the hospital — is essentially a creative and positive take on what happened, judging by the court records.

"The scene was nothing less than chaos," according to the lawsuit. "Police officers were doubled over vomiting, unable to breathe. Medical personnel, in their attempts to provide assistance to the officers, became overwhelmed and they too began to vomit and gasp for air. Some of the police officers, unable to abandon their vehicles due to their weapons being present, jumped in their vehicles and drove themselves to the nearest hospital. The other officers and medical personnel were all placed in an ambulance and were driven to the nearest hospital."

Arkema issued a statement maintaining that the lawsuit is a mistake and that the company never failed to warn people of the dangers of breathing smoke from the fire at the site, nor misled anyone. Of course, Arkema's statement doesn't go anywhere near the accusations that the company should have had better emergency plans in place to begin with.

Despite Arkema's claims, on Thursday a judge granted the plaintiffs request for a temporary restraining order and injunction to keep Arkema from destroying or moving any of the evidence from the scene.</s>HOUSTON -- A lawsuit was filed Thursday against Arkema Inc., after attorneys said hazardous chemicals from a plant explosion in Crosby, Texas left several first responders sick and injured.

"From doubling over to vomiting, to chemical bronchitis. They're still being treated. We had a client go back today for a third or fourth visit. It's not something that should happen when you go to work to protect your community," attorney Misty Hataway-Cone said.

The plaintiffs are seeking their own investigation to find out exactly what sort of chemicals these first responders were exposed to and whether or not, Arkema has been keeping up with safety prevention protocols over the years.

"This is not the first time a hurricane has hit the Gulf Coast. It's up to the chemical manufacturers to have a plan so that they can foresee the natural disaster and then prepare for it. And obviously, in this particular situation, we know that they were not prepared for it," attorney Mo Aziz said.

The attorneys said the first responders were inside their vehicles and outside the 1.5-mile mandatory evacuation zone when they were exposed, meaning, they were supposedly in a safe zone when they started feeling the toxic effects.

"They were within what should have been a safe zone, they've all told me that. They were either outside or immediately, to secure the zone, or driving to it," Hataway-Cone said.

Attorney Kim Spurlock said a judge has granted a temporary restraining order to prevent any past documents or evidence that would indicate Arkema's safety testing and protocols. An injunction hearing has been scheduled for September 22nd.</s>Attorneys representing several first responders filed a lawsuit Thursday, claiming an initial fire burning at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas sickened their clients.

"It's not something that should happen when you go to work to protect your community," said attorney Misty Hataway-Cone.

For several days, those living within 1.5 miles of the Arkema plant were told to stay out of their homes. Flood waters swamped safety systems designed to keep organic peroxides at the facility cool. When the chemicals heated up, fires erupted.

A trio of attorneys now want to know about what the plant did to prepare for Harvey. On Thursday, a judge granted the attorneys a temporary restraining order to ensure the company preserves all evidence related to the crisis.
Seven first responders file a $1 million lawsuit against the Arkema chemical company for failing to warn them in advance about the environmental dangers from the plant explosion. The seven people, six police officers and an emergency worker, remain under a doctor's care.