Local officials announced that a shelter-in-place order issued Sunday morning for parts of the most populous Texas county was being lifted in the early afternoon. The order applied to sections of Harris County, which includes Houston and is home to more than 4 million residents, and was ordered in response to a chemical gas leak at a 99-cent distribution center just about 30 miles west of the city.
An investigation into the warehouse leak and its cause is currently underway, a CBS affiliate Kho mentioned. The station, located near a highway in the smaller city of Katy, will remain closed while the investigation takes place, the station reported.
Dr. Erika Brown, director of the community health and wellness department at Harris County Public Health, said during her a Press Conference.
Prefecture officials said earlier that the chemical leak began around 9 p.m. Saturday. They explained that maintenance crews were doing routine work on the warehouse cooling system and initially monitored the leak after it started in an overhead cooling line. The line itself hung 16 feet in the air, Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen said, which initially made it “inaccessible” to the hazmat team sent as part of the county’s containment plan.
“Because of his height,” Christensen said [the line] It’s such an explosive product, the Hazardous Materials Team couldn’t get in there and do anything about it at first.”
Maintenance workers noticed the chemical, later identified as anhydrous ammonia, began leaving the building around 1 a.m. Sunday, officials said. No injuries have been reported yet in connection with the leak, but potential threats to air quality and human health have prompted the Harris County Public Health Department to implement a protection-in-place order for residents within a two-mile radius of the distribution center.
“The owner’s approved refrigeration contractor was performing work on the refrigeration system when the release occurred,” 99 Cents Only Store said in a statement obtained by CBS News.
“The safety of our employees, others in the building, and our community is always our top priority. The building was evacuated immediately as soon as the leak was discovered,” the statement continued. “Construction operations will not resume until we have confirmed the cause of the release, the issue has been fully resolved, and state and local officials have advised that the facility is safe for normal operations.”
Fire Chief George McAteer explained that ammonia leaks pose risks due to the chemical’s flammability, as well as its ability to cause respiratory symptoms and irritation to the nose and throat if a person comes into contact with contaminated air.
The county health department said, in an advisory notice, that ammonia, one of the most widely produced chemicals in the United States, is a pure, colorless, odorless compound referred to as anhydrous ammonia in its purest form. Twitter. Although low levels of ammonia are found in household products, such as cleaning solutions, high and potentially dangerous concentrations of the chemical “are used in manufacturing, refrigeration, and agriculture (as a fertilizer),” according to the CDC.
“If anyone experiences watering eyes, burning eyes, irritation in the nose or throat, and difficulty breathing, we ask that you go to the nearest emergency center for care,” Brown said while discussing the chemical spill on Sunday. “If anyone has any chronic medical conditions or feels they have health risks associated with them, we ask that you contact your provider to determine next steps.”
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