Albemarle Contains Fire at Pasadena Facility

BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 22  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A small leak of aluminum alkyls from a railcar caused a fire at Albemarle Corporation's Pasadena, Texas facility Tuesday evening.  The fire was contained, however one employee suffered first- and second-degree burns.  The employee was hospitalized and is expected to be released today.

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The fire started at about 5 p.m. CST Tuesday and was immediately contained to one of two on-site aluminum alkyl railcar-loading areas.  The leak was stopped and the fire extinguished at about 8 p.m. CST.  An investigation into the cause of the leak is in progress.

The company's site emergency response team acted quickly and, along with safety systems around the loading area, kept the fire contained there.  No other areas of the plant were affected and operations at the site have resumed.  No impact on production at the site is expected.  Customers are being contacted to confirm deliveries.

Albemarle notified state and local emergency response officials of the incident.  Representatives of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality monitored outside the facility for emissions from the plant, while Albemarle monitored for emissions inside the facility.  The monitoring indicated no traces of hazardous chemicals that could pose a threat to area residents or employees.  As a precautionary response only, the Houston ship channel was closed temporarily to water traffic.

Aluminum alkyls are chemicals used as catalysts in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene, and other polymers (plastics).  Albemarle is the world's leading supplier of such catalysts, primarily produced at this Pasadena facility.

Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a leading global developer, manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics; petroleum and petrochemical processing; transportation and industrial products; pharmaceuticals; agricultural products; construction and packaging materials.  The Company operates in three business segments -- Polymer Chemicals, Catalysts and Fine Chemicals -- and serves customers in approximately 100 countries.  Learn more about Albemarle at http://www.albemarle.com/.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties.  For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K. 

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DATASOURCE: Albemarle Corporation



CONTACT:  Mr. Rene Milligan, Corporate Communications of Albemarle

Corporation, [phone], 



Web site:  http://www.albemarle.com/ 

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