Smoke and giant flames began pouring out of two trailers containing volatile organic peroxides used for making plastics and rubber at the Arkema chemical plant around around 7 p.m. in Crosby, Texas, on Friday, Sept. 1.

Friday marks the third day since the plant was abandoned due to power loss caused by 6 feet of flood water from Hurricane Harvey, knocking out both the primary supply and backup energy generators. Employees had moved all of the organic peroxides to nine 18-wheeler box vans with cooling systems in an attempt to cool them. A first container had exploded on Thursday, Aug. 31 around 1 a.m..

The company has said that the smoke released by the chemicals can cause irritation in the lungs, nose, and eyes. Fifteen Harris county sheriff’s deputies were admitted to the hospital after the early morning explosion for inhaling the fumes, but were all discharged on Thursday afternoon.

Akema did not consider destroying the chemicals in order to prevent the fire, and initially debated relocating the chemicals to a working facility, but decided that it was too risky.

“Those were our levels of contingency,” Darryl Roberts said, a safety official with Arkema. “Clearly that wasn’t enough.”

The surrounding areas within a mile and a half radius of the plant have been evacuated since Tuesday, Aug. 29 after officials looked at the list of chemicals in the plant, although the list has not been publicly released.

As of right now, there are six containers remaining located in more isolated areas of the plant that are expected to explode.