25MAR2019 - NEWS - Ship traffic halted on the Houston Ship Channel due to the petrochemical fire ignited on Friday

A petrochemical fire re-ignited Friday afternoon at a fuel storage facility outside Houston, adding to the danger from a containment wall breach earlier in the day that spilled chemicals and halted ship traffic in the nation’s busiest oil port. Smoke filled the sky over Mitsui & Co.’s Intercontinental Terminals facility in Deer Park, Texas, after fuels at the site ignited about 3:40 p.m. (2040 GMT). The fire and chemicals leak prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to halt vessel traffic from the ITC site near Tucker Bayou to Crystal Bay, near the mouth of the channel. No injuries have been reported as of now. The fire erupted on the West side of the facility among tanks damaged during a fire that began Sunday and was initially extinguished early Wednesday. The tanks, which can hold up to 3.3 million gallons each, held fuels used to make gasoline and plastics. The U.S. Coast Guard halted ship traffic along most of the Houston Ship Channel, creating a bottleneck of vessels looking to enter or leave terminals on a key industrial waterway that connects Houston to the Gulf of Mexico.

Published by Editor - www.Livebunkers.com at 25-Mar-2019 06:16:34 [UTC] , contact editor at editor@livebunkers.com