Two dead, dozens attended to following chemical leak at Texas plant

Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Two people are dead and more than two dozen others received medical treatment following a chemical leak at a PEMEX facility in the Houston suburb of Deer Park, officials and authorities said late Thursday as they lifted shelter-in-place orders that had forced thousands to stay indoors.

PEMEX, a Mexican state-owned petroleum company, said in a statement that the gas leak was reported at one of its Deer Park refinery processing units, located at 5900 Highway 225, at about 4:40 p.m. local time.

The City of Deer Park announced the updated death toll in a statement late Thursday, adding that 35 employees were triaged at the scene. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez had earlier said one person was dead and five were injured, including one person who was airlifted from the scene by a Life Flight helicopter.

Originally described as an unknown chemical release, Gonzalez later identified the agent as hydrogen sulfide, a flammable, highly toxic gas.

A shelter-in-place order had been issued for all 34,495 residents of Deer Park at about 7:30 p.m., but it was lifted at 9:30 p.m.

Texas State Highway 225 was closed in both directions near Beltway 8 because of the emergency.

PEMEX said emergency protocols were activated following the leak and notifications were sent out to local authorities. According to the City of Deer Park, the Harris County Sheriff's Office was notified of the emergency at 5:23 p.m.

"To mitigate the impact, the operation of the coking unit and hydro treatment units was proactively stopped, and safety venting was carried out, notifying the authorities through the mechanisms outlined by the protocol," PEMEX said.

"No impact on the community has been reported."