Harris County officials and Deer Park residents express frustration over the deadly gas leak

A shelter-in-place order has been lifted for residents in Deer Park and Pasadena after a deadly gas leak Thursday. Two maintenance workers died and 13 workers were injured when gas leaked from the PEMEX oil refinery in Deer Park.

According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, workers were performing maintenance on a large flange that contained hydrogen sulfide when the flange failed. The reason for the failure remains unknown.

“We know what kind of events are taking place here. It’s obviously a very dangerous area,” said Greg Roberts, a Deer Park resident.

Just three weeks after a major pipeline fire in Deer Park, the community is once again facing another tragedy. A gas leak at an oil refinery killed two maintenance workers. PEMEX, a Mexico-based oil refinery, said 13 other workers were also taken to hospital for treatment.

“We are trying to be helpful, but PEMEX is not a good neighbor,” said Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia.

The dangerous gas was released from a PEMEX plant around 4:40 p.m. on Thursday. Deer Park police were notified of the chemical leak at approximately 5:23 p.m. However, some residents said they never received any warning about the release of toxic gases.

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“I have had no notification at all from the city or anything else. We wouldn’t have known anything if it had been a colleague of mine,” Roberts said.

About an hour later, at 7 p.m., the city provided shelter to Deer Park.

“I said to my wife, ‘We have to go.’ Go into the house. We immediately go into the house and close the doors. Just 30 to 45 minutes later we heard the sirens,” Roberts said.

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The shelter-in-place order was lifted about two and a half hours later at 9:30 p.m. First responders were finally able to get close enough to the scene at 3:30 a.m. Friday to transport the slain workers to the coroner’s office.

Now Harris County officials are putting pressure on PEMEX to be more transparent and provide better communication during emergencies.

“First, PEMEX simply failed to provide timely information so that we could understand air monitoring capabilities and their metrics,” Garcia said.

In a statement, PEMEX Deer Park CEO said:

“Yesterday was a tragic day for us here at PEMEX Deer Park. We are deeply saddened that two people died at our site and additional workers were hospitalized. Our thoughts are with the families of the deceased and the affected workers. Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is available to all employees who need assistance.”