This story is the second of a two-part series by Public Health Watch and The Texas Tribune. It is co-published by Grist.
A week after the massive chemical fire that spewed toxic smoke over this Houston suburb had been extinguished in March 2019, Mario Ochoa cradled his 4-year-old son and prayed the child’s cough would ease so they could both sleep. Castiel kept waking Ochoa up with “horrible and terrifying” snoring.
“It was like watching your son drown right in front of you,” Ochoa said. “[He was] gasping for air in his sleep.”
A group of massive tanks, some containing millions of gallons of highly flammable chemicals used to make plastic and gasoline, had caught fire at a chemical storage facility owned by Intercontinental Terminals Company, a Texas-based company owned by Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. The fire began after a tank’s pump failed and began to leak naphtha, a highly flammable liquid.
As the fire at ITC spread from tank to tank, an ominous ... Read more
