Explosion, Fire Kill 17 in Tex. Suburb : Block-Sized Section of Plant Ripped ‘Like Rocket Just Took Off’

An explosion and fire ripped through a city-block-sized section of a chemical plant “like a rocket just took off,” killing at least 17 workers, authorities and witnesses said.

The explosion occurred about 11:30 p.m. Thursday as crews were cleaning waste tanks at the Arco Chemical Co. plant in this Houston suburb. The 564-acre complex employs about 350 people and also uses some outside contract workers.

Five workers were injured and one was missing.

“It’s a terrible tragedy,” plant Manager Earl McCaleb, his voice breaking, said this morning. “It’s an overwhelming sadness, the loss of friends and co-workers.”

Linda Prouse, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, said 15 fatalities were confirmed by late this morning. One worker remained unaccounted for, she said.

Arco said four people were treated for minor injuries and released and one person was hospitalized, but the company could not give further details. None of the victims were immediately identified.

McCaleb said the blaze was not extinguished until more than four hours after the explosion.

The blast occurred in a utility area, a remote section that provides cooling, water and steam for plant operations. The explosion involved two tanks containing waste water and some hydrocarbons, McCaleb said.

Officials said there were an unusually large number of people in the area of the plant complex because crews were cleaning the tanks.

“I saw a big flash cross in front of my eyes. I looked over to my left and I saw a big ball of fire. . . . It looked to me like a tank run off, you know, like a rocket just took off,” Mike Zugel, a truck driver who witnessed the explosion, told Cable News Network.

There were no evacuations of people living in the area, according to fire dispatcher Karen Ragsdale.

Rose Ann Raupp, an investigator for the Harris County medical examiner’s office, said her office is working with plant employees in an attempt to recover the bodies.

“The area is roughly about a city block,” Jack Johnson, president of Philadelphia-based Arco Chemical of North America, said late this morning. “It’s pretty obvious the explosion at the tank was devastating to that particular portion of the plant.”

McCaleb said the blast involved two tanks, both of which collected waste water and some chemicals from the plant. The material is pumped from one tank to another before it is disposed of.

A vacuum truck, of the sort used to remove wastes, was in the area of the tanks where the explosion occurred but it was not immediately known if it had anything to do with the accident, McCaleb said.