the chemical reaction here means fire, or explosion, and so a 1 1/2-mile radius around the plant has now been put under mandatory evacuation. that s to prepare for the explosion they are now expecting. today the north american ceo of arkema, a french company, a north american division, the ceo of that division held a conference call with reporters to answer questions about the situation at the plant. we tried to reach the company today hoping the ceo could join us tonight to help us explain and understand what s going on there. we left several messages with him. but we never heard back. i m not complaining, it s understandable. but he did make this public call. today the ceo said arkema has removed all its staff from that plant and the area around it. he said there is now, quote, no way to prevent a possible explosion there. because they can t get back into that plant. they can t do anything to start
that big. it s hard to tell for sure. we do know that they ve tried to evacuate everybody from the mile and a half area. apparently you can t force people to leave their homes in texas, so i do know there are some people in that mile and a half radius that have chosen not to leave. we don t know what s going to happen to the homes, and the areas around it, but we know the mile and a half radius was set to be conservative and protect as much people as possible. matt, you re describing that disagreement there between the fire marshal and other experts that you ve talked to. it sounds like they re disagreeing on how big and what the character will be of the explosion when it happens. there s no disagreement as to the fact there s going to be an explosion? oh, yeah, there will be a fire or explosion. it will be very surprising if there isn t. they don t think they have the ability to get back into that facility for at least six days, because they have over six feet of water in that fac
stuck waiting. they can t monitor the temperature for all of the refrigerated containers that are holding the organic peroxides. they have no idea when the temperature will get too hot and then cause an explosion or a fire. that s why they evacuated everybody last night. and they re, honestly, a lot of people are just sitting and waiting. you asked that question today with the arkema ceo about whether or not he would release the inventory essentially of what chemicals were kept on site now, since it s no longer what people have public access to. i found it remarkable he saw no need to do that. did you ask that, because you believe there might be information in that inventory which would help make decision that is would preserve human health and life here, that would help make decisions about the appropriate radius for the evacuation, that it might help prepare for the type of explosion or chemical reaction we would be expecting here?
codes. it s illegal in the state to require fire alarms or fire exits or sprinklers or anything like that. at this fertilizer plant in west texas, among the schools and apartment buildings and nursing homes of the town, the explosive ammonium nitrate in that facility was stored in wooden bins, in a wooden building, with no alarm system of any kind, no firewall system of any kind and there were no sprinklers. and it went off. with a blast so epic, you almost can t believe it. and after that apocalyptic fireball in west texas, in 2013, the state did decide to change one thing in texas about storing chemicals like that ammonium nitrate fertilizer that almost wiped one texas town off the map. at that abbott was the attorney general of the state. he decided after the west explosion that the public would no longer be allowed to know
cooling off those chemicals again until conditions relent. one reporter on this call today, matt dempsey, of the hughes chronicle, he standard what seems like a pretty straightforward question in a crisis like this. i mean, given that people have been evacuated from a mile and a half around this plant, given that they said there s no way we can prevent an explosion, that they can t keep these chemicals cold, and it will probably result in a chemical reaction. given that, this reporter asked the arkema ceo, can you tell us what s inside that chemical plant? what are we dealing with here? can you give us that tier two report? which until a few years ago used to be something we could get as a matter of public record. i have the 2015 tier two inventory. are you going to provide the latest inventory to the media?