First responders sue Arkema for $1 million following explosions at Crosby plant

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Houston Chronicle

Seven first responders injured after explosions at the troubled Arkema chemical plant in Crosby are now suing the company for at least $1 million.

On Thursday, barely a week after the first blast of decomposing chemicals rocked the small town, Houston lawyers Kimberley Spurlock and Misty Hataway-Cone launched a legal battle in Harris County court, accusing Arkema of gross negligence.

Despite past flooding events and advance notice of the impending destruction of Hurricane Harvey, Arkema "ignored the foreseeable consequences of failing to prepare," the suit claims, leaving trailers of volatile chemicals susceptible to explosion after flooding knocked out the electricity and ability to cool the heat-sensitive compounds.
...
"Although the explosions had occurred, no one from Arkema alerted the first responders who were manning the perimeter of the arbitrary mandatory evacuation area," lawyers said Thursday in a press release. "Immediately upon being exposed to the fumes from the explosions, and one by one, the police officers and first responders began to fall ill in the middle of the road."


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/article/First-responders-sue-Arkema-for-1-million-12180324.php

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Hopefully neighbors will all sue for something too.

Sue the holy fucking shit out of companies that go out of their WAY to hide info from the public, then remove the politicians who help them with IDIOTIC laws.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. It's a French company, btw.

The joys of global "free trade" and all that stuff.

Just as the US big oil companies spread out over the years into foreign lands, and poisoned them with impunity, so too are we getting the same treatment now.

[Sunlei]

2. was some trailers, they could have moved trailers out or used a flat barge for a string of gens

no regulations by a state really sucks for the citizens.

[They_Live]

3. They should sue Gregg Abbott/TX repubs as well

for changing regulations on these kinds of companies in Texas.

[Dustlawyer]

13. Responding to the West fertilizer plant explosion by allowing the companies to keep secret their

inventories of what they have on-site!

Yet another example of Quid Pro Quo and money in our politics!

[vkkv]

4. 1 MILLION, that's it ????

' one m-i-l-l-i-o-n DOLLARS ' ??

[ProfessorGAC]

10. That's What I Thought Too

Arkema will find a million in the cushions of the couches of the executive suites!

[procon]

5. Those weren't explosions, the company man called them itty bitty "pops".

That couldn't have been exposure to toxic chemicals that made them collapse on the ground, the company man said the fumes were no worse than a campfire.

First responders should not stop at suing the Arkema plant, they should also sue their employer for sending them into harms way without adequate information, training or equipment. Then go after the deeper pockets of the city and state for failing to pass even minimum health and safety regs to protect humans from corporate greed.

[benld74]

6. Lawyers will always have jobs

[thesquanderer]

7. Whenever I see Arkema, I think Arkham, where all the evil stuff happens in Gotham. (n/t)

[ananda]

8. *This*

It really does.

[gilligan]

9. Good luck with that in Texas.

[ellie]

12. No kidding

They probably have an arbitration law on the books; anyone who is affected by a chemical spill needs to go through arbitration with an industry stooge.

[NBachers]

11. Time to pull the money out, bankrupt the company, sell it to the same owners; open under a new name.

[True_Blue]

14. Do the first responders even know what they were exposed to?

Last edited Thu Sep 7, 2017, 11:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Last I heard the Arkema CEO wouldn't disclose any chemicals that were stored there other than hydrogen peroxide. When I worked with chemicals (a couple of decades ago), we had access Material Declaration Sheets which had information on the chemicals we were working with and information on treatment in case of exposure. I guess companies don't have to do that anymore.

I hope they get a lot more than 1,000,000, because they may need a lot more than that if they end up with a lifelong medical condition from whatever they were exposed to.

[summer_in_TX]

15. Dems in Texas should target Greg Abbott

Dems in Texas should target Greg Abbott and anyone else responsible for removing the Community's Right to Know and allowing companies to keep the chemicals involved in their operations a secret.

It's mind-boggling that though the explosion of the fertilizer plant in the midst of West, Texas killed 15 people, the reaction of the Republican-controlled legislature and then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott did absolutely nothing to increase public safety. In fact they took actions to make people less safe, by removing corporations' requirements to report, preventing communities from having the information needed to regulate and individual citizens having the information they need to protect the safety of their families and themselves.

Rs put corporations ahead of the citizens who they're sworn to protect. Seems to me to be a powerful argument at all levels of government, not just Texas.

[truthisfreedom]

17. So much for that claim of "as harmless as campfire smoke".