Posted with permission from Confined Space, a newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues.
Cable news and newspapers across the country are headlining the continuing explosions at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, that was flooded by Hurricane Harvey. The plant was evacuated after power failed and several containers full of volatile chemicals that required cooling threatened to explode when power was lost and the generators failed. At 1:00 am early Thursday morning, the first of the nine containers exploded, sending a plume of black smoke into the community. The other eight containers are also expected to explode.