Massive Explosion And Chemical Fire At Waxahachie, Texas Plant On October 3rd 2011

           

HERE October 3, 2011 1:31 PM (credit: KTVT/KTXA)

WAXAHACHIE (CBSDFW.COM) – As a result of a chemical fire in Waxahachie the Ellis County Office of Emergency Management has issued an evacuation order. The Civil Emergency Message advises, “People in the area of Highway 287 and Interstate 35 East in Waxahachie should evacuate immediately“.

Firefighters continue to battle the fire and explosions at the Magnablend chemical warehouse.

Just after 2 p.m. David Hudgins, chief of the Waxahachie Fire Department, held a press conference. The chief said despite not being able to reach parts of the fire and having loss one ladder truck, fire crews were still making progress battling the blaze.

“We believe that the fire, right now, is about 80-percent contained. We just got a small area right there where you see the flames coming up that we’re not able to get lines in there because weren’t able to get apparatus over there,” the chief told reporters.

When CBS 11′s Jack Fink asked the chief when the fire would be extinguished he responded, “We think within a couple hours we’ll be able to. We’ll be letting people back into neighborhoods before 5 o’clock.”

The fire started just before 11 a.m. Magnablend Environmental Health and Safety Manager Donald Golden talked about the immediate reaction at the scene. “Our first priority obviously when we got to the location was to ensure that everyone was out of the building and accounted for,” he recalled. “Once we were sure that was the case the fire spread very rapidly. Fire departments were on the scene pretty quickly but it [the blaze] just seemed to take off and accelerate pretty quickly.”

Flames and fumes from the blaze are so intense that fire crews have decided to let the fire burn itself out. “All firefighters have been pulled back because of the severity of the situation,” explained Amy Hollywood, with the City of Waxahachie.

During the afternoon press conference Chief Hudgins gave some indication how the blaze got out of control. “We had a [chemical] reaction and a fast-moving fire. The building was sprinkled. We do believe that the fire overran the sprinkler system, and before we [fire crews] could get hooked up to it, it had already spread throughout the whole back the building,” explained Hudgins.

(credit: KTVT/KTXA)

According to the company website, Magnablend houses various organic and inorganic chemicals.

Lisa Wheeler, with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, says the company also uses sulfuric, hydrochloric, nitric, and phosphoric acids.  Wheeler says Magnablend has a clean safety record with the agency.

The warehouse is located just off of the Highway 287 Bypass, near Interstate-35E. As a result of the fire, smoke and fumes both directions of Highway 287 have been shut down in the area.

Fire departments from multiple cities were called in to combat the blaze.

The Environmental Protection Agency sent teams to monitor the air quality around the fire. “It’ll be some time later this afternoon before we have monitoring data from those air monitors, but the agency is on the way and will support the emergency responders at the scene of the fire,” explained Dave Bary, with the EPA.

State officials are also lending a hand. Terry Clawson with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said they too are sending air monitoring teams. “We will do whatever needs to be done,” said Clawson.

The Navarro College Waxahachie campus, which is just adjacent to Magnablend, was evacuated.

Initially administrators at nearby Wedgeworth Elementary were keeping their students inside but the decision was made to evacuate. Video shot from Chopper 11 showed students being loaded onto school buses to be taken to another school.

So far, there have been no reports of injuries.  According to Golden, there were some 30 people inside the plant when the fire and explosions broke out. On its Facebook page, Magnablend says all the employees are safe and accounted for.

CBS 11 News has crews on the ground and in the air and will have more information as it becomes available.

Video HERE