After two small explosions went off earlier this week, many questions were raised about just what kind of chemicals were still stored in the plant, prompting a notice of a federal investigation on Friday. The owners of the French-owned plant said on Friday that it won’t make public a detailed chemical inventory.
We understand that the public is worried,” Arkema Inc. CEO Richard Rowe told reporters Friday. But citing “security reasons from a terrorism perspective,” he said the company has already released a list of the commercial products and raw materials on-site — but wouldn’t give specifics on quantities or where in the facility’s potentially hazardous chemicals are located.
Dr. Marco Kaltofen, president of Boston Chemical Data and an engineering professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute told NBC News the details about the chemicals, called a Tier II filing, are supposed to be reported to federal and state authorities and local emergency responders.
CNN News is reporting there has been no emergency responders at the chemical plant where the fire started about 40 minutes ago. What started as some dark gray smoke quickly grew to a hot, blazing inferno that at times leaped into the air at least as high as a two or three story building.
Thick, noxious black smoke rose high into the sky, spreading out across the area, yet no one knows for sure how toxic or dangerous it might be to people in the area. Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee was on the telephone with CNN and is outraged over the lack of any response this evening from FEMA or any city or state officials.
