French chemical conglomerate, Arkema SA, was sued in Harris County District Court on Thursday by seven police, fire and emergency service workers alleging they sustained severe injuries resulting from an explosion at the company’s facility in Crosby, Texas following Hurricane Harvey. The lawsuit seeks more than $1 million in damages.
The plaintiffs claim that Arkema representatives negligently denied the chemicals were harmful and did not properly warn first responders about the hazardous materials at the facility. The stored chemicals were required to be cooled in order to avoid becoming volatile. The chemical plant suffered two explosions as the Houston area was gripping with Hurricane Harvey.
“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 by members of local agencies including law enforcement and the fire department. “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.”
In a statement, Arkema said its employees did “everything they could to protect the public.”
The first responders’ lawsuit also alleges that Arkema did not properly store its chemicals or have reasonable procedures “to protect the safety and welfare of the community in the event of a catastrophe and failed to provide the public and first responders with accurate information on the chemicals at risk of exploding.”
“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,” said the company, in a prepared 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.”
On August 31, OK Energy Today reported about the explosions that rocked the Texas chemical facility.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality announced on September 6 that the regulatory agency has launched an open investigation into the Arkema explosions. The agency is working with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Arkema’s facility in Crosby, Texas has a history of safety violations including incidents in 2006 for failing to adequately store a pallet of organic peroxide and failing to maintain equipment at proper temperatures in 2011.
In the company’s 2016 annual report, Arkema warned its investors of the risk of chemical explosions, stating “facilities may be subject to risks of accidents, fires, explosions and pollution due to the very nature of their operations and to the level of hazard, toxicity or flammability of certain raw materials.”