Fire breaks out at Exxon plant in Baytown

  BAYTOWN, TX (KTRK) -- Firefigthers extinguished a blaze that broke out Wednesday afternoon at the ExxonMobil plant in Baytown.

Baytown police say officials at the plant at 4500 Bayway Drive called to inform them of the blaze and asked the city to put ambulances on standby, which is standard protocol.

SkyEye 13 HD captured flames coming out of a column at the plant. Baytown police say what caught fire appears to be a diesel product that does not pose any environmental hazard and no shelters in place will be imposed.

Officials with ExxonMobil say no one was injured, but an investigation into how the blaze started is ongoing.

In a prepared statement, ExxonMobil Spokeswoman Rachael Moore said the company's emergency response teams were brought in to get the incident under control.

"As a precaution, our Industrial Hygiene staff is doing air quality monitoring around the complex and in the community," Moore said. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to the community and will update you when we have additional information."

Stay with Eyewitness News and abc13.com for the latest on this story.

And if you have photos or video of the fire, email it to news@abc13.com. But please don't put yourself in harm's way to get the shot.

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Shelter-in-place around SE Houston plant lifted

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A burn-off at a plant on the southeast part of town Sunday prompted officials to issue a shelter-in-place for people within a mile radius.

It happened at the TPC plant at 8600 Park Place. The flares were burning due to a power loss at the plant, officials said.

The facility was burning off C4 hydrocarbons. Harris County Pollution Control monitored the area and data shows there was no hydrocarbon reading or odor.

As a precaution, the Houston Fire Department issued the shelter-in-place, which was lifted Sunday evening.

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City to plant 25,000 new trees for Arbor Day

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Houston landscape has changed dramatically in the past few months because of the drought, but now there's an effort to plant 25,000 trees in one day.

Four parks are being targeted -- Memorial, Hermann, MacGregor and Mason. They've lost thousands of trees and could lose more if we don't get more rain.

Dead trees have cut down from one Houston park to another.

"I don't like it. I like more trees," said resident Willie Bailey.

He and generations of his family have played at MacGregor Park, but tree stumps have replaced where lush urban forests used to be.

"I remember when I was young there was trees; that really attracted me to the park," Bailey said.

Because of the drought, city foresters estimate 11,000 dead trees have already been removed. Even as that process continues, the city of Houston is making big plans to replace the lost canopy.

"It's a long-term process. We're going to have to replant Houston over the years for future generations, there's no doubt. We can't replace what we've lost currently," said Joe Turner, Director of the Houston Parks and Recreation Department.

Just in time for Arbor Day, the city wants to plant 25,000 trees over one weekend. Many of the larger trees will come from Tree Source, which says January is the ideal time to get young trees in the ground.

"Even though we are not getting the rainfall that we need, they will get the roots out and establish themselves better than when you are planting in the summer," said Wayne Gross with Tree Source.

The idea is to plant a variety of trees that are at different ages and have different water needs, and hopefully, survive Houston's searing summer.

With sponsors paying for the trees, what the city now needs are volunteers so parks like MacGregor will be around for future generations.

"The importance of trees is very important for my kids," said Bailey.

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Fire breaks out at NE Houston manufacturing plant

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A fire broke out a manufacturing plant in northeast Harris County this morning, sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from miles around.

It happened at a plant in the 8400 block of Airline. We're told that plant makes plastic tanks, many of which burned in the fire.

The fire was quickly tapped out and no injuries were reported. There is a neighborhood behind the warehouse and residents there are unable to get in or out right now because the only access road is being blocked by fire crews.

At this point, we don't know the cause of the fire.

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Power failure at Conoco Phillips plant

  SWEENY, TX -- Efforts to clean residue off of transmission equipment that caused a series of power outages at several Southeast Texas refineries last month might have led to another power outage at a different facility on Tuesday.

ConocoPhillips' refinery in Sweeny lost power at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, said company spokesman Rich Johnson. Power was restored by 1 p.m. "We're in the process of restarting the affected units. No injuries or offsite impact was reported. The cause of power outage still under investigation," he said. The refinery in Sweeny, located about 65 miles southwest of Houston, can process up to 247,000 barrels per day. Late last month, several refineries in Texas City, located southeast of Houston, experienced a series of power outages. The electricity provider, Texas New Mexico Power Co., said those outages were caused by salt and other residue that had built up on transmission equipment at substations and other locations, leading to short circuits. Texas New Mexico Power spokeswoman Cathy Garber said since last month's outages, the electricity provider has been cleaning the residue off of all its transmission equipment in Southeast Texas. On Tuesday, workers had finished cleaning some of this equipment at the refinery in Sweeny and were in the process of powering it back on when something went wrong, Garber said. The problem might have been on the "refinery side of things" but officials are still trying to determine what exactly caused the outage, she said. The temporary shutdown of the refinery in Sweeny prompted the facility's flare system to burn off any chemical releases that might have been sent into the air. "We are conducting air monitoring in the area to insure there was no health risk in the community," Johnson said. (Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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