A fire at the ExxonMobil refinery was caused by a leak at process equipment in the crude unit according to an initial TCEQ report.
According to the Southeast Texas Alerting System, the fire broke out around 6:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.
A neighbor who lives across the street complains he was never notified.
"What if the plant was to blow up, they talking about staying inside and we don’t know nothing about what’s going on everybody be injured or somebody be dead," said resident George Lincoln.
Around 6:43 a.m. an alert was sent through the Southeast Texas Alerting Network for residents to remain inside their homes.
"In this case our shift team issued a statement through the STAN at a very fast pace," said Ashley Alemayehu with ExxonMobil public relations.
On site responders quickly extinguished the flames and there have been no reports of any injures.
A voluntary shelter in place was ordered as a precaution for the surrounding area, but after initial testing, the air quality is below detectable limits, therefore the shelter in place has been lifted
Another resident said he was notified immediately about the fire through a STAN alert and encourages other neighbors to register for the emergency updates.
"We try to stress through the neighborhood association the importance of registering with the STAN to get these alerts when things of this nature happen," said Christopher Jones.
Alemayehu said output at the plant will not be affected.
According to the initial TCEQ report a combination of over 260 pounds of chemicals were released in the air such as sulfur dioxide, unspecified volatile organic compounds and hydrogen sulfide.
ExxonMobil has not released information about the extent of the damage at this time.
You can see the full TCEQ report here.
To register for STAN alerts click here.