Texas Oil Refinery Leak Kills at Least 2 and Injures Dozens

At least two people died this week and dozens of others were injured following a leak at an oil refinery in Texas.
On Thursday, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Texas reported the leak, which occurred at the Shell Pemex Facility. The sheriff’s office said that the leak resulted in the release of Hydrogen Sulfide. The facility, located in Deer Park, is operated by Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company.
Hydrogen sulfide, a gas known for its foul odor, can become toxic when present at high concentrations.
In a press release posted on social media, the City of Deer Park Police Department said that they received reports of the leak at around 5:23 p.m. local time on Thursday at the “Pemex Oil Refinery located at 5900 Highway 225,” in Deer Park.
“The Channel Industries Mutual Aid (CIMA) was activated and responded to the scene. The City of Deer Park issued a shelter-in-place at 7 p.m. that was lifted at 9:30 p.m.,” police said.
The press release also noted that roughly 36 Pemex employees were injured following the leak “and 2 have been confirmed as deceased.”
“The majority of mutual aid resources have been released, and HCSO will continue their investigation,” police said.
Hours after the leak started, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez noted that the area remained too hazardous for investigators to enter and that officials might not be able to access the site until Friday.
Gonzalez explained that the gas leak occurred while workers were repairing a flange at the facility, which is part of a large network of refineries and plants that make Houston the core of the U.S. petrochemical industry.
In a statement, Pemex announced that investigations were underway and that operations at two units had been “proactively halted” to help mitigate the impact of the incident.
The City of Deer Park Police noted in their press release that the shelter-in-place order was lifted after officials from Harris County Pollution Control and Harris County Hazmat “revealed no hazardous pollutants within the community.”
Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton said, “Other than the smell, we have not had any verifiable air monitoring to support that anything got outside the facility.”
Television footage captured numerous ambulances and emergency vehicles at the site. Initially, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez posted on X, formerly Twitter, that one individual had been airlifted to a hospital, but officials later clarified during a news conference that no one was transported by helicopter.
The leak marked the second shelter-in-place order in Deer Park in recent weeks. Just last month, a pipeline fire that raged for four days prompted evacuations in nearby neighborhoods.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press