Dominic Anthony Walsh / Houston Public Media
A plume of flames and smoke emit from a chemical plant on Monday, Sep. 14, 2025.
After a power outage at a chemical plant on Monday afternoon, a large flare from an elevated smokestack was emitting flames and a plume of smoke over east Houston.
A spokesperson for TPC Group — which operates the facility off of Highway 225 and Goodyear Drive — said in a written statement that a power outage “impacted our boilers, resulting in flaring with visible smoke,” starting around 3 p.m.
“Our Operations team is responding to the issue and is safely restoring power in an orderly manner,” the spokesperson said at 4:18 p.m. “We are also restarting the boilers to reduce the impact on the flare.”
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A Houston Public Media reporter spoke with employees leaving the property, who said they had been sent home early.
The TPC representative said the company was “conducting air monitoring in and around the site to help ensure the protection of our people, the community, and the environment.”
“We have made the required notifications and do not believe there to be an impact on the community,” the TPC spokesperson said. “Our focus remains on safely resolving the situation. We will investigate the cause of the power outage once we have safely restored power to the facility.”
In June, a tire fire at nearby Mammoth Metal Recycling produced a much larger plume of smoke, prompting an elevated emergency response.
Harris County Pollution Control Services did not respond to questions about the flaring on Monday.