Fire at La Porte, Texas ITC facility intensifies overnight

HOUSTON (ICIS)–The fire at International Continental Terminals Co’s (ITC) facility in La Porte, Texas, intensified overnight due to a temporary reduction in water pressure and has spread to two empty tanks, the company said on Tuesday.

Photo by Adam Yanelli

“Due to the fire’s intensification during the night, two additional tanks have become involved bringing the number of tanks involved in the fire to 8,” ITC said in a statement issued at 02:30 Houston time on 19 March.

The water pressure has since been restored and responders have been able to fully resume their efforts to fight the fire, it said.

Additional response resources have been contracted and are expected to be operational by 08:00 on Tuesday.

ITC previously said that the tanks that were on fire contained toluene, naphtha and xylene. The capacities of the products affected were not disclosed.

Officials on 18 March said that the fire could potentially burn for another two days.

Air monitoring continues at the site, with readings well below hazardous levels, according to ITC.

There have been no injuries reported.

The fire at the terminal started on Sunday at 10:22 Houston time.

The terminal has 242 storage tanks that have a total capacity of 13.1m bbl.