CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Residents on Dona Drive said they heard a loud boom.
A few blocks from there, neighbors confirm they heard and saw what was happening outside.
“You can hear air blowing really loud. Whatever it was sounded like it was losing pressure. As I stood out here it looked like a flame bursted over there,” said Billy Placker.
The City of Corpus Christi sent out a reverse alert just after 7 a.m. over the fire .
Placker said he never received it.
“I was definitely shook up. It just seems like one of these days something really is going to happen,” he said.
Placker and others are still shook up from the barge explosion that killed four people and injured six others two years ago on the Corpus Christi ship channel. Including, Jazmin Denabor.
Denabor works at a local Mexican restaurant.
She tells KTV10, earlier this morning employees and customers stopped in their tracks.
"I was near the speaker taking an order when there was an explosion and then ambulances and firemen drove by and you could see there was a big flame,” she said.
A big flame coming from the Valero East Plant.
After experiencing similar incidents both Denabor and Placker urge people in the area to prepare if they need to evacuate.
The Valero public affairs manager tells us no injuries were reported and the fire has since been contained.
