the epa is doing some air testing for us. and water testing as well. reporter: what is the danger as his product moves into the water supply? we don t expect it to move out of our perimeter. it will burn. all of it will burn. we had no reports of any positive tests for reporter: what kind of things are you watching for? hydrocarbons. organic compounds. total organic compounds. reporter: for the first responders who have experienced that stuff, what were they experiencing if the air monitoring didn t detect anything? they were inside the 1.5-mile evacuation radius when they
continue to watch these live pictures out of crosby, texas. a major fire happening. you can see the dark plumes of smoke. matt, you spent the day there yesterday. that morning they come. arkema may say that this is what they warned of. definitely, that 1.5-mile evacuation radius was put in order. they went door-to-door. they at least warned the public. they said we anticipate this coming. there were many deputies in the area and were injured and treated. they described their wounds and pain as standing over a pit of fire. if that gives you an idea of what breathing this material might be or feel like, that s how they described it. they were treated and released. sandra: just some background, they lost power earlier in the week. that knocked out their primary supply. i know you detailed that, which
currently closed because it s inside the 1.5-mile evacuation radius. sheriffs vehicles blocking anyone getting on or off it. getting around as if getting around wasn t difficult enough, now this major highway is closed. as you are discussing, there s a lot of conflicting information right now beginning last night when there were two reports of explosions at this arkema plant. today we wake up to hear county officials and an executive from the chemical plant saying it wasn t an explosion. it was a chemical reaction. basically what s happening, the arkema executive said they have nine containers of organic compounds that are highly flammable. they anticipated harvey hitting their property so they closed shop. they brought in backup generators and those failed. then they brought in another system and that failed. right now one of the nine containers basically combusted, caused a fire and released with their calling irritants into the air. we are trying to determine just
u.n. weapons inspector. tim, good to see you. i want to focus on the evacuation radius. but the news about the line almost being completed. how potentially effective could that be in terms of averting a full-on disaster. this is the last lifeline. the ad hoc measures trying to cool count reactors in the cooling pools have not worked. if they can get the original cooling system back functioning and get the pumps working with reliable power, it could be they could get this situation under control. rick: do you have any idea how long it would take before we have a sense whether the lines are going to work? there has to be concern whether there is damage being done to the pumps and the equipment in the cooling system. so i would imagine as soon as they get the power going they will be doing tests to see if all the equipment is working.
the embassy and we re in the same place, right in front of me is where all the americans will be evacuated in a few hours, and, this is the first we are starting to hear of it. so, nobody here knows any of this. we are hearing from your feed. it is quite alarming. rick: let me ask you about the news, now, that high levels of radiation had been detected 18.5 18.6 miles from the nuclear power plant and you are innocent die and for those of us not entirely familiar with the geography, how close are you? are you within the evacuation radius? and how do you feel about being so close to such potential danger? yes, that has finally come around to everyone today, the center, everyone has been talk about how far we are from that and we re just over 50 miles, so, we are, you know, right up to the and for the first time, this afternoon, people are starting to get worried. and, it is catch-22, you know?