2 people have been killed following an explosion at a manufacturer in Houston
2 people have been killed following an explosion at a manufacturer in Houston
Two people have died as a result of Friday morning’s explosion at a Houston manufacturing business, city Police Chief Art Acevedo said.
A criminal investigation into the blast’s cause is underway, he said.
“We have no evidence at this point … that an intentional act is involved. Having said that, part of our protocol is always to (start) a criminal investigation” in such a case, Acevedo said.
“It’s going to take days, if not weeks or months, to get a final determination of what’s going on here.”
People who are within a mile of the blast site should look for debris — including body parts — and report it to authorities if they see something, Acevedo said.
“Please search your homes, and if you can, take a look at your roof,” Acevedo said.
The blast happened around 4:15 a.m. local time (5:15 a.m. ET) at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing, Acevedo said, roughly an 18-mile drive northwest of downtown.
A fireball rose from the scene after the blast, video posted to Twitter appears to show. The distant footage was taken by a camera mounted to a home window.
Details about what caused the explosion weren’t immediately available. At least one person was injured by shattered glass and was taken to a hospital, Houston fire Capt. Oscar Garcia said.
Flames no longer were visible by daylight, but firefighters hadn’t explored the blast site because an unspecified gas was flowing in the damaged business, and crews were trying to shut it off, Houston fire Chief Samuel Pena said.
“We won’t be able to get in there until we secure that,” Pena told reporters at a news conference.
Officials had no reports of any air quality hazards, Pena said.
Debris flew a half-mile from the explosion site, Acevedo tweeted. Many homes in the area were damaged, including broken windows and doors, and in at least one case, a collapsed ceiling, CNN affiliates reported.
“The whole ceiling fell in,” a resident told KTRK about her home.
“I thought maybe the house had gotten hit by lightning. And then I realized there was no storm,” the resident told KTRK.
Mark Brady, who lives about a half-mile from the manufacturing business, told CNN affiliate KPRC the blast “knocked us all out of our bed.”
“It busted out every window in our house. It busted everybody’s garage door in around here … and closer toward the explosion over here, it busted people’s roofs in and walls in,” he said.
“I live downtown,” said Pena, the fire chief, “and I felt it all the way downtown.”
A church in the area is serving as a temporary shelter “for anybody that we may have to evacuate out of their home due to damage,” Pena said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many people need to leave their homes.
No formal evacuation order was immediately in place. Still, Mayor Sylvester Turner asked people to stay away from the area so emergency responders could work.
A school district in the area, Spring Branch ISD, said it plans for a full school day, though buses may be delayed.
“We will keep all students inside today as air quality in the area continues to be monitored,” the district said on Twitter.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/01/24/us/texas-houston-explosion/index.html
search
our offices
FROM THE BLOG
Texas A&M donors’ lawsuit against 12th Man Foundation over Kyle Field seats and parking to proceed
By David Barron, Correspondent A Brazos County state district judge has cleared the way for a long-delayed trial showdown between a group of disillusioned Texas A&M donors and the A&M-affiliated 12th Man Foundation, stemming from a decade-old dispute over seating and parking rights at Kyle Field. State District Judge George Jerrell Wise on Wednesday signed an order denying a summary…
Lawsuit Against Texas A&M Aggies 12th Man Foundation Moves Forward
A legal showdown between former Texas A&M donors and the 12th Man Foundation will proceed at last. A Brazos County judge has ruled that a lawsuit between former Texas A&M Aggies donors and the 12th Man Foundation will move forward, David Barron of the Houston Chronicle reports. On Wednesday, State District Judge George Jerrell Wise…
Texas A&M donors’ lawsuit against 12th Man Foundation over seating, parking dispute cleared for trial
A group of Texas A&M donors will finally get their day in court for a dispute against the 12th Man Foundation over parking and seating at Kyle Field. According to the Houston Chronicle, a judge in Brazos County last week denied a summary judgment motion from the 12th Man Foundation, which sought to dismiss the…