Fire Upends Fire Drill Planned in Houston by Liquid-Tank Owners

(Bloomberg) -- Houston was all set to host a huge emergency response drill in August this year, where federal, state and regional groups would partner with large liquid-tank owners -- when suddenly a wrench was thrown in the plans.

The group putting the training together, the International Liquid Terminals Association, was fresh off its first ever training run last year in Tampa and wanted to bring the same drill to Houston.

"The problem we ran into this year, the location we had planned the exercise for actually had a fire," Bill Bollier, a safety executive at Murphy Oil Corp. who was helping to plan the event, told attendees Tuesday in Houston at the ILTA annual conference. "So, um, they’re not going to be doing exercises now."

Earlier this year, a trio of petrochemical fires over a three-week period rocked the Houston region, leaving one dead and plumes of smoke billowing for days. Bollier asked conference attendees to speak up if anyone wanted to host the next fire drill his group is planning.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Wethe in Houston at dwethe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada

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