Update at 7:30 p.m.: During a briefing on Friday afternoon, Francisco Sanchez, Harris County's deputy emergency management coordinator, urged residents to stay informed over the weekend after another fire was contained at the ITC plant in Deer Park and clean-up operations would continue. "Our hope is this does not happen again, but should it happen we'll be ready to respond," said Sanchez. Sanchez said their main area of concern were the communities surrounding the plant and noted that Harris County remained at a low risk. The fires were contained at the ITC plant in Deer Park late Friday afternoon, according to company spokesman Dale Samuelson. "The fire has been extinguished," said Samuelson. Samuelson said it was unclear how many tanks caught fire or the chemicals that were inside, but he said they would release that information when it becomes available. At least two tanks were on fire at the plant, sending up another plume of black smoke, according to the Harris County Office of Emergency Management. Update at 4:47 p.m.: ITC confirmed in a news release that the tanks in the west side of the containment area have re-ignited. A runoff ditch along Tidal Road also appears to be ablaze. "This is a developing incident," ITC officials said in the statement. "We will provide additional information as soon as it becomes available." Harris County authorities said the fire is taking place within the original tank farm that was the site of the fire earlier this week. It's unclear where the blaze began or what caused it. ITC couldn't immediately confirm what chemicals are in the affected tanks. Deer Park's office of emergency management referred to the smoke as a "flare up." A shelter-in-place isn't in effect at this time. "The City of Deer Park is not issuing a Shelter-in-Place order at this time but we are monitoring the situation," the office said. The Sam Houston Tollway Ship Channel bridge was closed due to the fire but was re-opened by Harris County Precinct Eight constables shortly before 5 p.m. Original story: A wall surrounding the damaged tank farm at the charred Deer Park chemical storage facility breached shortly after noon Friday, company and Harris County officials said, increasing the risk that airborne and liquid toxins will be released from the site. HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM INVESTIGATES: Deer Park company battling fire accused of intentionally polluting water during Harvey "We have learned that a portion of the tank farm containment wall containing the product has partially collapsed. Industrial neighbors and the Texas Battleship and Monument State Park should consider taking shelter-in-place precautions," said Intercontinental Terminals Co. spokesman Dale Samuelson. "We are coordinating with federal, state and local officials to resolve the issue as soon as possible." County emergency operations spokesman Aaron Ewing said local officials are working under an ongoing air monitoring plan to assess the situation at the facility where holding tanks began exploding on Sunday and burned for days. Officials noted that such a breach could affect the effectiveness of the foam blanket that is coating the tank farm in the hopes of preventing flare-ups and the release of further toxins. HOUSTON CHRONICLE EXCLUSIVE: Dangerous chemicals create hidden dangers in Houston It is unclear whether the central risk posed by Friday's breach is airborne or into the Houston Ship Channel or Tucker Bayou. About the same time of the breach, which occurred on the north side of the wall, Port of Houston officials closed part of the ship channel, due to pollution from the fire. A spokesman said the channel is closed from Tucker Bayou to Light 116. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said workers were trying to contain toxins from flowing downstream by placing additional booms in the water, and said an ITC contractor is collecting and storing contaminated runoff. "TCEQ is working to fully assess and mitigate any wider impact," the agency's roughly 2 p.m. statement read. The wall breach came shortly after ITC officials said crews could spend up to 12 hours pumping pyrolysis gasoline out of one of tanks and that during that time, the risk of benzene exposure in the air will increase. "There's going to be a lot of agitation in the tank when we start the pumping," Brent Weber, ITC incident commander, said. "There is an elevated risk of benzene emission during this time." WHAT RESIDENTS ARE SAYING: Anxiety washes over Deer Park community after fire Pyrolysis gasoline, also known as "pygas" is a benzene-rich liquid byproduct that can be blended with other chemicals for use as a gasoline additive. That chemical was the source of a benzene spike on Thursday morning, after it leaked out from foam covering one of the tanks. City leaders issued a shelter in place that lasted for several hours. ITC officials estimated on Thursday that 14,000 barrels of pygas remained in that tank. However, ITC officials said Friday that about 20,000 barrels remained. WHAT IS BENZENE? What you need to know about the dangerous chemicals in the Deer Plant fire Crews attempted to pump pygas from the tank on Thursday, but the effort didn't work, Weber said, in part because of an unideal environment concerning the positioning of the pump. The pump was also losing prime, he said. Aside from the roughly 20,000 barrels of product in the one tank, about 40,000 more barrels are expected to be removed, Weber said. Not all tanks are compromised, but they contain pygas and naptha, which have some percentage of benzene. Elevated levels of the highly carcinogenic benzene were detected early Thursday in the area near the plant, prompting a shelter in place that continued throughout the morning. Around 4:38 a.m. Friday, one air monitor specifically testing for benzene and located about 500 yards from the tank farm picked up an elevated reading, falling within the threshold of taking additional precautionary measures, according to the Harris County Emergency Management Office. The reading, recorded by county officials, was higher than Thursday's. It showed lower readings later in the morning. An ITC spokesman said that because the Friday reading was "localized," there was no need for a public notice or shelter-in-place order.<doc-sep>An intense fire churned through massive chemical storage tanks Monday at a facility east of Houston, continuously pumping plumes of black smoke that drifted across the region as firefighters fought to contain the blaze for a second straight day. Although the fire is expected to burn another day or two at the Intercontinental Terminals Company in Deer Park, local health and emergency officials said early air quality tests indicate the fire has not posed a serious health risk to residents. No injuries were reported. By late Monday, the fire was believed contained within six storage tanks at the ITC site, where gasoline components and other chemicals are housed in 80,000-barrel tanks. "Right now, what we're seeing is no elevated levels (of pollutants) because the plume is high enough that it's not affecting us here close to the ground," Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a press conference early Monday afternoon. The plume of smoke rose up to 4,000 feet Monday afternoon, aided by relatively dry and clear conditions, allowing particles to dissipate above the ground. County officials said the plume could fall to a height of about 400 feet overnight — a distance still unlikely to impact residents' health — as the air cools and grows heavier. "I don't expect a large number of people to have their health affected unless circumstances change or the fire worsens," said Arch Carson, a medical toxicologist at the School of Public Health at UTHealth. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Map of the Deer Park ITC fire The tank with the fire symbol over it is believed to be the one where the fire started. The areas highlighted in red are where the fire is believed to have spread. The purple markers are tanks containing Pygas, which is the source of benzene. The blue X markers were empty tanks. The black marker shows where the containment dike breached on Friday afternoon. Created by: Ken Ellis Government officials on Monday eased some directives issued in the hours after the tanks caught fire, lifting a shelter-in-order for the city of Deer Park and reopening a stretch of Texas 225 near the plant. Deer Park and La Porte ISDs, which combine to serve about 20,500 students, canceled classes Monday but will reopen Tuesday. Deer Park ISD also tweeted that it would be "restricting outside activities for the duration of the incident." Portions of Independence Parkway, the main road off which ITC is located, will remain closed until further notice. "Everything from the local level, from the Deer Park school district and the city, we're being very cautions in how we deal with this, because we want to make public safety the number one priority," Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton Jr. said. "It is a very dangerous and active event that is occurring, and it's still going on." DEER PARK FIRE: What you need to know about the chemicals The fire ignited on the grounds of the 47-year-old ITC site located about two miles north of Texas 225 near the Battleship Texas State Historic Site and Buffalo Bayou. The company's storage facility contains 242 tanks capable of holding petrochemical liquids and gases, as well as oil products. It is located along the Houston Ship Channel in an area dominated by energy-producing corporations synonymous with Houston. Intercontinental Terminals Company is owned by the Japanese behemoth Mitsui & Co., which once owned Toyota and Toshiba. Mitsui is one of the largest trading companies in Japan and owns several other Texas-based companies, including the oil and gas investments company MEP Texas Holdings, Houston-based methanol production facility MMTX Inc and feed additive manufacturing plant Novus International. About 300 people work at the Deer Park facility. ITC officials said the fire started in tanks containing Naphtha and Xylene, both components of gasoline, and spread to a small patch of containers that included Toluene, a chemical used in nail polish remover, glues and paint thinners. Exposure to harmful levels of the chemicals can cause headaches, dizziness, vomiting and irritation of the nose and throat, among other effects. The risk of additional tanks catching fire remained minimal, company officials said late Monday. ITC leaders initially said seven tanks caught fire, but they later said one of those containers emerged unscathed. "We have made some headway that (only) three of our tanks are still on fire," ITC spokeswoman Alice Richardson said. "Three others are intermittent fires. They flare up and they go down." Carson, the UTHealth toxicologist, said the primary hazard from petrochemical fires typically involves smoke descending over residential areas and leaving particulates in its path, primarily causing breathing-related issues. He said even if the smoke drops to 400 feet, as predicted, that would be too high to cause health effects. HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM INVESTIGATES: Dangerous chemicals create hidden dangers in Houston Local and state government officials said they are watching fixed testing sites that monitor air quality on an hourly basis, while also deploying mobile testing devices to various areas in the county. A fixed monitor site about five miles southwest of the plant reported elevated levels of carbon monoxide and nitric oxide — two by-products of fuel burning — but neither came close to exceeding government-established limits for safety. Measures for particulate matter were lower than those taken several other days in March before the fire. In addition, ITC's third-party independent air monitoring contractor, Kemah-based Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, found no dangerous particulate measurements. The center used handheld devices to measure air quality at several dozen locations throughout Deer Park, Pasadena, southern Houston and eastern Harris County. The results, however, were not enough to quell concerns of environmental activists and residents living near the plant. Neil Carmen, the Sierra Club's Texas Clean Air Program director, said air quality measurements also should be taken above-ground, in the area of the smoke billow. Air-bound tests can measure larger swaths of the region and more particles. Elena Craft, senior director of the Environmental Defense Fund, said environmental consequences will extend well beyond the initial fire.<doc-sep>The daunting plume of smoke from the Deer Park chemical fire now reaches all the way across the Houston area to Austin. So why are officials still saying current air quality levels aren't posing serious health risks to the public? As of noon, air quality levels were still at a "moderate" reading with 78 particles detected in the Houston area, according to AirNow.gov. That's one step below a level that's unhealthy for sensitive groups, including people with heart and lung disease, older adults and children. A hazardous level requires a particle reading of at least 301. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: An oil milestone overshadowed by billowing threat of danger Current weather conditions are playing a major role in keeping the air quality readings below hazardous levels, according to meteorologists and county officials. The dry and clear conditions helps the particles to dissipate above the ground, according to earlier reports in the Houston Chronicle. Additionally, warmer afternoon temperatures are causing the plume to stay above 1,000 feet, minimizing risk for smoke or soot inhalation for people on the ground, according to National Weather Service meteorologists. The smoke was expected to fall to around 400 feet overnight with cooler temperatures, but that height still wouldn't impact residents' health, according to county officials. "So far the ground-level concentrations haven't been that high," National Weather Service Meteorologist Dan Reilly said. High temperatures are expected to reach 71 degrees today and around 74 degrees until Saturday, according to forecast. In addition to warmer air, a slight change in wind direction is causing the plume to move further northwest though Jacinto City into Waller County, officials said. Reilly said he couldn't speak to the specific chemicals burning at the Deer Park plant, but he said people could still experience risks of soot exposure if it concentrates enough toward the ground-level. "Up until now, that smoke layer has been elevated," he said, later adding, "If it [stays] lofted, then we won't see a major impact." RELATED: Deer Park plant fire: What you need to know about the chemicals When it comes to exposure to other chemicals in the fire — most of which are used in the production of gasoline — he encouraged residents to keep checking the latest air quality measurements, available at AirNow.gov or tceq.texas.gov. Multiple agencies have been independently measuring air quality on behalf of the county and the plant operators. Harris County Pollution Control has been tracking volatile organic compounds around the plume using handheld monitors in the area of Deer Park, Pasadena, downtown Houston and Uptown, according to a map on its its website. More recently, they're measuring specifics points along a northwest line through the city toward Tomball. So far, they haven't found any volatile organic compounds above normal levels, according to the website. Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.<doc-sep>A worker who said he was at the Intercontinental Terminals Co. when the fire first erupted Sunday morning first noticed smoke rising from a chemical storage tank. He left the terminal within a half-hour and by then, "It was roaring up." The man, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions, said speculation among his colleagues is that parts of the tank may have overheated. The tanks overheat from time to time, he said, but normally have a safety mechanism that can shut them off. For whatever reason, that safety mechanism may not have been enough to prevent the fire, he said. "Everyone thinks a tank overheated," he said. DEER PARK PLANT FIRE: Blaze extinguished, but situation far from over Video of the initial incident on Sunday showed flames on the ground between several tanks. ITC officials have not said what started the massive blaze. The cause remains under investigation. The fire ignited around 10:30 a.m. and first spread to a tank containing naphtha on the industrial grounds about two miles north of Texas 225 near the Battleship Texas State Historic Site and Buffalo Bayou. The blaze churned through the terminal, engulfing as many as eight units at one point and sending a massive plume of black smoke drifting across the Houston area and stretching northwest of the city. TOMLINSON: Black smoke over Houston is part of the deal The fire surged again late Monday as a loss of water pressure hampered firefighting efforts. By late Tuesday, the plume lost much of its height and volume even as the fire was expected to continue through Wednesday. The company's storage facility along the Houston Ship Channel contains 242 tanks capable of holding petrochemical liquids and gases, including oil products. It has been located in the channel area for the past 47 years alongside several energy-producing corporations synonymous with Houston. The worker said he and his colleagues expected the fire to have been put out in the hours after it started but that never happened. Now, he explained, "It's like putting out a 55-gallon drum with a squirt gun," he said. The worker asked that his name and company not be identified. He provided photos of the facility. nicole.hensley@chron.com NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.<doc-sep>
UPDATE: Shelter-in-place alert issued for Deer Park after high benzene levels detected 6:50 p.m. update A fireball erupted at the Intercontinental Terminal Co. several hours after fire crews extinguished the days-long petrochemical blaze, causing black smoke to rise from the industrial site once again. An ITC spokeswoman attributed the soaring flames to a flare-up in a tank containing xylene, which was one of the first storage containers to catch fire. There was likely a break in the foam being poured on the tank, she said. Vapor can then ignite when it hits hot metal, she added. Deer Park Emergency Services Director Robert Hemminger said the fire was extinguished within 30 seconds. A strip of smoke, thinner than what had stretched across the Houston region since Sunday, poured out of the terminal site for several minutes before dissipating. The spokeswoman said similar flare-ups could continue to happen as crews spray foam among the razed chemical tanks. Earlier story below The cause of the dayslong chemical fire at a Deer Park plant remains under investigation as emergency crews douse what's left of the now-extinguished blaze and prepare for clean-up, company officials said Wednesday. Fire crews extinguished the blaze at Intercontinental Terminals Co. about 3 a.m., almost four days after it started on Sunday morning and which caused a plume of black smoke to linger over the Houston area. How long the cleanup will take is unclear. Firefighters are continuing to spray foam on the 15 tanks in the affected area to prevent the blaze from sparking again and steam and smoke may still be visible from the area. Eleven of the tanks, many containing gasoline components, were affected by fire. "Reignition is possible, but with every passing hour, our risk of that is reduced," ITC spokeswoman Alice Richardson said Wednesday. "Our goal is to be good neighbors — good neighbors to our industry, good neighbors to our community. We're sorry for what has happened." ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Deer Park company battling fire accused of intentionally polluting water during Harvey No serious injuries have been reported since the fire started at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Air quality levels were still at moderate levels Wednesday morning, according to AirNow.gov. The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting air and water quality tests at the fire site and in the plume, EPA on-site coordinator Adam Adams said. The most concerning materials are particulates and "volatile organic compounds," but no hazardous levels have been found. "Had we gotten some significant results that were hazardous, we would share that information with our stakeholders in the community as soon as possible to take action," Adams said at a news conference Wednesday morning at ITC's Pasadena plant. The EPA is also looking into the potential impact at the Houston Ship Channel, Adams said. Water quality tests there have not yet been returned, determining what chemicals might have infiltrated the runoff. Adams declined to comment on whether the EPA would spark its own investigation after the fact and said the organization is more concerned with the immediate monitoring for now. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: In Deer Park, 3 days of burning and a round of golf The difference-maker between Tuesday morning — when officials walked back earlier estimates and declined to say when the fire would be snuffed out — was an offensive approach to the firefighting, Richardson said. "They continued that proactive attack, tank by tank, and it was successful," she said. It's unknown how full the 11 damaged tanks were prior to the fire, and how full they are now. The tank that sparked the incident — 80-8, a tank of naphtha in the middle of the 15-tank block — was the fullest, with 72,000 barrels. Another had 60,000 barrels, and several others were well below that, said David Wascome, vice president of operations at ITC. The tanks are able to be filled to 80,000 barrels. The tanks that burned contained gasoline blends, base oil, pyrolysis gasoline, naptha and xylene. Two of the tanks were empty, officials said. The foam that is being sprayed in the plant is effectively creating a seal covering the chemicals, Wascome said. "We're treating it as if those could be VOCs (volatile organic compounds)," he said. The amount of damage to the tanks is unknown. Many of them will have to be demolished, Wascome said.