BAYTOWN, Texas – A fire broke out and forced a shelter-in-place at one of ExxonMobil’s largest ethylene plants nestled south of I-10 outside of Houston Wednesday.

The fire was contained to a unit for polypropylene material.

The shelter-in-place has been issued out of an abundance of caution, Texas TV station KTRK reported online.

The Baytown Olefins plant began operations in 1979.

Thirty-seven people suffered non-life threatening injuries but none required hospitalization, the plant said.  All workers are said to have been accounted for, KTRK reported. 

ExxonMobil released the following statement about the fire: 

A fire has occurred at the Baytown Olefins Plant. Our fire teams are working to extinguish the fire. We are conducting personnel accounting. Our first priority remains the safety of people, including our employees, contractors and the surrounding community. As a precaution, our Industrial Hygiene staff is conducting air quality monitoring at the site and fence line. We are cooperating with regulatory agencies. We deeply regret any disruption or inconvenience that this incident may have caused the community. 

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