Shelter-in-place lifted after chemical fire at aviation plating facility in Bellaire, officials say

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Public health officials lifted a precautionary shelter-in-place that was issued after a chemical fire ignited at an aviation plating facility in the Gulfton-Bellaire area early Saturday morning.

Firefighters began battling a fire at about 4:30 a.m. that heavily damaged the facility warehouse on Royalton Street.

An Eyewitness News viewer submitted a video near Elm Street that shows soot on the side of High Tech Finishing's warehouse.

A tweet by the Houston Fire Department at 9:20 a.m. said no injuries had been reported. It asked people to avoid the area due to heavy traffic.

The Houston Fire Department said the business works with highly volatile chemicals. Because of that, air quality and water runoff readings prompted a shelter-in-place issued at 10:35 a.m.

HFD Chief Sam Peña said the alert was issued as a result of "particulates that may exist in the air."

"We did expand it to a mile-and-a-half radius. We might expand it too far but we want to go beyond. We can always bring it closer," Pennington said.

It was lifted later at about 2:08 p.m.

"We responded to a fire in a kind of factory," HFD deputy chief James Pennington said.

As the team got to work fighting the flames, resident Jonathan Castanenda was getting ready for work.

"I came out at about five in the morning and saw all the firefighters and ambulances. I could see like black smoke, and there was a weird smell in the air," Castanenda said.

"It was a busy night for our personnel last night. This was the second fire (at a different location) that happened around the same time. This fire came in as an automatic alarm a little after four o'clock in the morning", Peña said. "We did issue a shelter-in-place warning for a mile and a half."

Officials said additional readings were conducted to ensure the safety of the air quality.

The source of the fire is still under investigation. Fire officials have turned the scene over to private contractors who specialize in chemical clean-ups.

For more news updates, follow Lileana Pearson on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.