At approximately 1:22 p.m. CT on March 27, 2000, an

explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...

and fire responsible for one death and 71 injuries occurred at

Phillips Petroleum Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the ...

's Houston Chemical Complex at 1400 Jefferson Road in Pasadena, Texas. The fire produced huge plumes of black smoke that spread over the heavily industrialized

Houston Ship Channel The Houston Ship Channel, in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston, one of the busiest seaports in the world. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between Houston-area terminals and the Gulf of Mexico, and it serves an incr ...

and neighboring residential areas. The explosion occurred at the K-Resin facility, which made styrene-butadiene, a type of synthetic rubber. At the time of the explosion, the tank was out of service for cleaning and had no pressure or temperature gauges that would have provided the workers with an alert to the approaching crisis. Ultimately, this explosion resulted in one fatality, while 32

employees and 39 subcontractors were taken to local hospitals for sustaining burns, smoke inhalation, and cuts from debris. It took search crews five hours to locate the body of a missing employee in the rubble. The dead man was Rodney Gott, a 45-year-old supervisor, who barely survived the

Phillips Disaster On 23 October, 1989 at approximately 1:05 PM Central Daylight Time, a series of explosions occurred at Phillips Petroleum Company's Houston Chemical Complex in Pasadena, Texas, near the Houston Ship Channel. The initial blast registered 3.5 on the ...

of 1989. At that time, Gott was in a building whose roof collapsed but he remained in the blazing plant to save a woman and attend to the injured. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's six-month investigation concluded that failure to train workers properly was a key factor in the explosion and fire, and it proposed that

be fined $2.5 million in penalties for 50 alleged violations of safety standards at the facility.

Facility today

The facility continued to manufacture high-density polyethylene (HDPE), as well as polypropylene and K-Resin SBC until 2011. This complex employs 750 workers for the production of specialty chemicals, including 150 operations and maintenance personnel. The facility also experienced fatalities in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. Today the facility only manufactures polyethylene.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips explosion Explosions in 2000 2000 disasters in the United States 2000 in Texas 2000 industrial disasters Disasters in Texas Explosions in the United States Fires in Texas Industrial fires and explosions in the United States Phillips 66 Urban fires in the United States March 2000 events in the United States

Facility today

See also

References