ground. one thing that might held us get a little more specificity is if we knew exactly what was in the plant and how much of it there is. but that is information that you are not allowed to know in the state of texas. not since a massive fertilizer plant explosion in the town of west texas in 2013. after that ammonium nitrate blast which leveled a good chunk of the town and killed 15 people, texas made one change to its rules about chemical storage. what those chemicals were and where they were stored would no longer be public information. which means when things start exploding, like they are right now at the arkema plant, the people of texas are asked to trust the companies and state officials are telling them the truth about what s happening. and what the danger is. now if you lived near this arkema plant, would you trust the state officials and the same state officials whose only response to a previous chemical
if you re somebody who real housewives here the arkema plant who is it that you re supposed to trust and believe to tell you that the air near your home is safe to believe when you re allowed to come back? that s a good question. the epa like you said has done some air testing and i they is the fire marshal s officer local authorities will have set up some air monitoring after. i think it s good that the epa did. but honestly from the people i talked to at crosby today, there s a lot of concerns about what s in it, what s in the smoke, is the radius of that 1.5 miles far enough. there is rampant rumor mongering all over crosby about whether things are being done correctly or not. there s a lot of concern about information not getting spread out to the public very much. and let s talk about that law. texas passed a law after the 2013 explosion that spewed chemicals into the air that said the public is not allowed to know what chemicals from if the plants near their homes. does tha
crosby, texas, 20 miles northeast of houston. this is a chemical plant, arkema plant. our correspondent matt finn is in houston. joins us now by a phone. we are looking, math, at these huge claims, these plumes of smoke. authorities say they expected it to happen. it looks like it s happening again, one of these containers. well, bret, one of the most concerning things yesterday we were unable to establish how any irritants might be. we were getting so much conflicting information first from the sheriff who said, his guys are in the radius, it s mike s breathing and smoke from a campfire. a short while later, an executive from this chemical plant, arkema, got in front of the camera and said if you re in the radius, you need to close your windows. later in the evening, homeland security advisor tom foster said that at one point in the 5-mile radius, you are seeing those
houston. that plant has been flooded ant without power on sunday when the backup generators for swamped. they lost the ability to keep thaer chemicals refrigerated. because of the chemicals that produce there, there s a risk of spontaneous chemical reaction if they re not kept cold. which means fire and explosion. last night before 1:00 in the morning local time the explosions came and the fire and a 30 to 40-foot plume of black smoke. but now tonight at this hour we re waiting for more explosions. more fire. this was the arkema mem call plant this morning. what you see burning there is the remains of one container of the chemicals. there are eight more on site. and the company fully expects all eight remaining container to explode and burn as well. a 1.5 mile radius around the plant remains evacuated and until the flood water recede,
of the names of the chemicals. i don t have anything about how much of each chemical, i don t have the chemical index code that i can use to research more about the chemicals, i don t know what kind of containers they are in and i don t knee where the chemicals are located on the facility. if you re somebody who real housewives here the arkema plant who is it that you re supposed to trust and believe to tell you that the air near your home is safe to believe when you re allowed to come back? that s a good question. the epa like you said has done some air testing and i they that s usually what happens is the fair marshal s office or local authorities will have set up some air monitoring after. i think it s good that the epa did. but honestly from the people i talked to at crosby today, there s a lot of concerns about what s in it, what s in the smoke, is the radius of that 1.5 miles far enough. there is rampant rumor mongering all over crosby about whether things are being done co