© Jon Shapley
Three injured in blast during 'routine function' at facility on Bay Area Blvd.
Russell Sage heard a loud boom and felt blast waves shake his truck as he sat parked across the street from the PeroxyChem plant in Pasadena Saturday afternoon.
"All of a sudden, the truck vibrated and you could hear it," said Sage, 34, who was on call at a facility about 800 yards from the plant. "You could feel it in your chest."
Moments later, Sage saw police, paramedics and other emergency personnel rush into the plant in the 12000 block of Bay Area Boulevard. Two ambulances later left, one with lights blaring and the other silent.
PeroxyChem officials and police confirmed that one person was killed and three others injured during an explosion at 12:45 p.m. at a tank holding an oil-based cleaning solution, according to Vance Mitchell, with the Pasadena Police Department.
David Brannon, with the Pasadena Fire Marshal's Office, said the explosion was caused by an over-pressurized tank. Harris County Haz-Mat and Channel Industries Mutual Aid also responded to the accident, he said.
The worker who died at the scene was a contractor whose name has not yet been released, PeroxyChem spokeswoman Natalie Kay said. Another contractor and two employees were taken to a local hospital. One of the injured suffered a broken arm, while the other two suffered chemical exposure, Mitchell said.
"Plant employees and contractors were conducting a routine function when the contractor's equipment exploded," Kay said in an email. "The site's emergency response plan was implemented. The emergency situation is contained. Current activities are focused on ensuring the safe and secure state of the plant and its employees."
According to PeroxyChem's webpage, the company employs approximately 550 people and manufactures hydrogen peroxide, calcium peroxide, persulfates and peracetic acid and other products for electronics, energy, environmental, food safety, pulp, paper, polymer, and other industrial and consumer markets.
"We are deeply saddened to report the loss of the contractor. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones," company officials said in a statement.
The facility was last inspected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in December 2014, and is in compliance with the Clean Air Act.
A federal Chemical Safety Board representative said Saturday evening that the agency is following up on details of the explosion and gathering information.
The accident marks the latest death in Houston's chemical industry. In July, a 46-year-old contractor died at Dow Chemical Co.'s Oyster Creek facility while checking welds inside a new pipe. Four workers suffered burns in an explosion in October at a SunEdison chemical plant in Pasadena. And in November 2014, four workers were killed when 23,000 pounds of a toxic substance leaked at a DuPont facility in LaPorte.
Staff reporters Mike D. Smith and Sarah Scully contributed to this report.
Well, it's nice that it got a 'clean bill of health' for the environment in 2014. Pity it's not doing too well with occupational health and safety. People matter too, you know. It's not just about clean air and the environment.