Cospolich Hazardous Duty Products: A Necessity for The Safety of Your Crew

The trees, water tower, and even telephone wires of an industrial district north of Houston had survived the winds and flooding of Hurricane Harvey, when, a week after the storm, the sky was suddenly blackened by thick, choking clouds of smoke. Somewhere on the ground a fire raged. A chemical storage trailer at one of the area’s many chemical plants had exploded.

The next day, another trailer exploded, and even more smoke filled the air. Officials braced themselves and issued warnings for anyone employed in the area to stay away.

“There are six more trailers there with the potential to do the same,” a spokeswoman for the company said. “We will likely see additional incidents.”

The hurricane had been bad enough. But the potent chemical fires that followed, and the poisonous gases they emitted, made the situation even worse. For a time, there was nothing to do, it seemed, but wait for the disaster to run its course.

The reason for the explosions was simple: massive flooding after the hurricane had eliminated power to the refrigeration systems responsible for keeping chemicals at a stable temperature. Without a functioning cooling system, it was only a matter of time before the explosions occurred. Fortunately, no one got hurt. But had they taken place in a more confined area, such explosions could have been deadly.

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