Mar 15 - Sad series of events out here at the Tri-Chem blending and manufacturing plant just outside Cresson, TX taking a right on Highway 171 coming in from Fort Worth heading towards Granbury. The facility has just recently kicked off operations no less from its parent operation in beautiful St. Gabriel, LA and now a pretty tragic outcome after one worker was killed (and just confirmed today on the 23rd as the one worker still missing), another seriously burned, along with at least one other minor injury occurring.
This Tri-Chem facility mixed food-grade and industrial phosphates into various mixtures for any number of perfectly normal and possibly a few not so normal processes. Basics like phosphoric acid to specialty substances like tetrapotassium pyrophosphate (TKPP) and sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) are made into varying liquid concentrations. The early reports suggested an unidentified substance caught fire when a worker dragged his foot on the ground. The fire spread to the person still in the hospital and then the explosions happened. That’s where our fatality was just found; it took this whole week just to clean up the debris and hazardous substances before hazmat crews could reach the body for recovery. That story checks out in my book, I cannot tell you how many fires i have adverted after a nearly fatal foot-friction incident. The solid SHMP is not much of a health hazard since well its used in processed food preservation but TKPP creates a toxic phosphor-containing brew when burned.
The neighboring Scotts facility up on the Cleburne Highway split which makes Hyponex reported sulfur smells, but then, that could be a case of what Sarah Silverman calls, not being able to smell your own smell. Meanwhile, poor MetroWest Transload, a lumber railroad transloading facility, almost definitely had to shut down their operations today. Who knows the future of this site but whatever happens here in the future, the land will definitely be tainted for years to come.