Commercial · Chemical and process plants

A chemical plant fire is several claims at once. Lost production usually decides the outcome.

Name: Crossroads Insurance Recovery Advocates
Address: 1080 W Sam Houston Pkwy N Ste 210, Houston, TX, 77043, US
Telephone: 713-369-4300
Rating: 4.9

Last updated: October 2026

Process units, firefighting water and contaminated debris, toll customers' material, and a restart gated by PSSR, MOC and TCEQ. We document and negotiate the full loss for the policyholder, and we tell you plainly when a question belongs with your attorney.

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13 months

KMCO, a Crosby specialty chemical maker, filed Chapter 7 about 13 months after its April 2019 explosion. For a plant with no captive insurer, early cash, evidence kept from the first hour, and the policy's lines around cleanup and lost production shape what comes next.

Source: U.S. Chemical Safety Board, KMCO final report (2023); interval computed from CSB dates.

First 72 hours

What to do in the first 72 hours after a chemical plant fire

Most plant fires in the Texas CSB record began with one failed component: a cast-iron strainer, a dead leg, a lost power supply, a removed isolation blind. That makes the cause investigation part of your claim, and its evidence is easy to lose in the first days.

Make it safe, then hold the scene. Once the unit is isolated and the fire is out, keep the failed component and nearby equipment in place until investigators and the insurer have seen it.

Check your reporting clocks. A death, a serious injury or an estimated $1 million in property damage can start the CSB's 8-hour clock. TCEQ's emissions-event and spill notices run 24 hours. Which apply to your release is for your attorney and EHS lead.

Export the data before systems are rebuilt. Pull DCS and historian data, alarm and event logs and shift logs for the days before and during the event. At ITC, the site's own gauge data showed a tank lost about 221 barrels in 27 minutes before ignition.

Start your incident investigation. For PSM-covered processes, OSHA requires it to begin within 48 hours, and the report is kept five years. Expect the carrier to ask for it.

Give written notice to every insurer that may respond: property and BI, equipment breakdown, pollution or environmental, GL and umbrella, stock and transit. Log claim numbers, adjusters and every call.

Track every dollar from hour one. Outside firefighting, foam, pumps, vacuum trucks, waste haulers, rentals, security and overtime are recoverable only if documented, and each policy treats them differently. Sort invoices as they arrive.

Log every agency and neighbor contact: fire marshal, ATF, OSHA, CSB, TCEQ, the LEPC, the county and neighbors. How you respond to investigators and third-party claims is a question for your attorney.

Sources: 40 CFR 1604.3; TCEQ emissions events and spill rules; OSHA 29 CFR 1910.119(m); CSB ITC factual update (2019).

Agency clocks

The reporting clocks a Texas plant fire can start

A Texas plant fire can start several agency clocks at once, from 8 hours for the CSB to six months for EPA's accident history. Late notice costs money: a 2026 TCEQ order against a gas facility assessed $12,688 for a late initial notice plus unauthorized emissions. Every filing also becomes a claim document, so keep a copy of each one in the claim file.

Clock	Trigger	Deadline
CSB	Accidental release causing a death, serious injury or estimated property damage of $1 million or more	8 hours. Owners that already reported to the NRC can instead send the CSB that report number within 30 minutes.
TCEQ emissions event, initial notice	Air release above a reportable quantity; 100 lb when a compound has no listed quantity	24 hours after discovery
TCEQ emissions event, final report	The same event	In STEERS, 14 days after the event ends
TCEQ spill	Spill at or above the reportable quantity	By phone to 1-800-832-8224 as soon as possible and within 24 hours. A call to the NRC or the LEPC does not count.
TCEQ spill follow-up	The same spill	Written report to the regional office within 30 working days; a separate 30-day follow-up to the LEPC
OSHA process safety	An incident in a PSM-covered process	Investigation starts within 48 hours; report kept five years
EPA RMP accident history	A release meeting the five-year accident history criteria	Within six months, or at the next RMP update if sooner
Tier II	A significant inventory change or a new hazardous chemical	Initial or updated report within 90 days; the annual report is due March 1

Tier II thresholds are 10,000 lb for hazardous chemicals, and 500 lb or the threshold planning quantity, whichever is less, for extremely hazardous substances. A company claiming TCEQ's affirmative defense for an emissions event carries the burden of proof. One of the six criteria TCEQ weighs is cause, including failure to protect equipment from the elements, which matters after a freeze.

Which clocks apply to your release, whether lost inventory counts as a significant change, and what to file are questions for your attorney and EHS lead.

Sources: 40 CFR 1604.3; TCEQ emissions events, spill rules, spill follow-up and Tier II pages; TCEQ 2025 emissions events presentation; TCEQ docket 2025-0313-AIR-E; 29 CFR 1910.119; 40 CFR 68.195.

Texas case studies

What KMCO, TPC and Arkema teach a plant owner

Three Texas plant losses with CSB final reports show how these claims unfold. A worker died at KMCO, and both KMCO and TPC went through bankruptcy.

KMCO, Crosby, April 2, 2019.

What happened: More than 10,000 lb of isobutylene leaked from a cast-iron strainer and ignited. One worker died, two were seriously injured and at least 28 others were hurt. Residents within 1 mile sheltered in place for about four hours. KMCO filed Chapter 7 on May 8, 2020.

Lesson: Unfinished insurer recommendations become part of the record. KMCO never finished a 2010 insurer recommendation for remote isolation or a 2013 one to harden electrical gear. Know the status of every recommendation before the adjuster asks.

TPC Group, Port Neches, Nov. 27, 2019.

What happened: A pump out of service for months left a dead leg where polymer grew for more than 100 days until the pipe ruptured. Explosions began just before 1 a.m., officials ordered everyone within 4 miles to evacuate, and fires burned for more than a month. Off-site damage to homes, schools and businesses reached $153 million.

Lesson: Neighbors' claims can outlast the plant, and open PHA items become evidence. TPC came out of bankruptcy having eliminated more than 11,000 explosion-related claims, and its butadiene production was still shut down three years later. The CSB noted a 2016 flushing recommendation that was never done.

Arkema, Crosby, August 2017.

What happened: Harvey floodwater cut main power about 2 a.m. on Aug. 28, and the last backup generator was off by 5 a.m. Organic peroxides that must stay cold decomposed, and the first trailer caught fire early on Aug. 31. More than 350,000 lb burned, more than 200 residents were evacuated and 21 people sought medical care.

Lesson: Flood then fire invites sequencing and exclusion fights. The insurer had flagged Arkema's flood risk in 2016, and that warning is in the public record.

Two more Houston-area events show the range. On Oct. 10, 2024, a hydrogen sulfide release at the PEMEX Deer Park refinery killed two contractors and sent 13 more for medical care, and Deer Park and Pasadena sheltered in place. The CSB's $12.3 million damage figure there was all loss of use, with no physical equipment damage. On Oct. 23, 1989, the Phillips explosion in Pasadena killed 23 people, hurt 314, destroyed two polyethylene plants and damaged an administration building about half a mile away. For refinery and petrochemical losses, see our refinery and petrochemical page.

Sources: CSB final reports on KMCO (2023), TPC (2022), Arkema (2018) and PEMEX Deer Park (2026); Texas Tribune (2022); KPRC.

Cause shapes the claim

Preserve the failed equipment: cause, origin and subrogation

Marsh links about 51% of major hydrocarbon losses to management system failures and says the same failure modes recur across decades. At plants older than 30 years, mechanical integrity failures account for 65% of losses. Expect the carrier's first questions to be about maintenance.

Brittle part.

KMCO's cast-iron strainer failed by brittle overload fracture. Vapor most likely ignited inside a control building with unclassified electrical gear.

What it means for your claim: metallurgy on the failed part and hazardous-area classification drawings will be requested early.

Dead leg.

At TPC, polymer grew in a dead leg left by an idle pump until the pipe ruptured.

What it means for your claim: out-of-service equipment, flushing records and open PHA action items enter the cause review.

Common-mode failure.

Harvey floodwater knocked out Arkema's power, generators and nitrogen backup at once.

What it means for your claim: expect flood vs. fire vs. pollution sequencing questions; elevation surveys and utility records matter.

Control of work.

The PEMEX release came during removal of an isolation blind.

What it means for your claim: work permits, contractor records and MOC sign-offs become claim documents.

No remote isolation.

KMCO, TPC and ITC all lacked remote isolation on the failed equipment, so the release grew.

What it means for your claim: how the fire spread will be examined, not only where it started.

Three investigations can run at once

Public agencies, the insurer's experts and your own team can all be investigating the same event. At ITC, the Harris County Fire Marshal and ATF ruled the fire accidental. CSB findings are not your cause analysis: the Arkema report says its conclusions cannot be used as evidence in damage suits. Their effect in an insurance dispute is a question for counsel.

The failed part is the subrogation case

Tag, photograph and hold it under chain of custody. Notify the carrier and possible defendants before any destructive testing; the legal effect of that notice is for your attorney. Evidence can also disappear in a sale. KMCO's buyer said it would dismantle the incident process and would not investigate.

Sources: Marsh, 100 Largest Losses, 29th and 26th editions; CSB KMCO, TPC, Arkema, PEMEX and ITC reports; KPRC (2021).

Who pays which piece

Property, business interruption, pollution, liability: which policy pays which piece

One chemical plant fire can reach six or more coverages at once, and the fights cluster at the sublimits: cleanup, contingent income and code upgrades. After the TPC explosion, FM Global paid neighboring Indorama $50 million under a contingent time element sublimit against a $100 million claim. Indorama disputes the cap, and a federal court denied FM's motion to dismiss.

Piece of the loss	Where it is usually covered	What to check
Buildings, process units, piping, stock	Property form, to its limit, subject to valuation and coinsurance	Statement of values vs. today's rebuild cost; replacement cost or actual cash value; agreed value
A part that failed from wear or corrosion	Wear, corrosion and breakdown exclusions are often raised; the resulting fire depends on the wording	Your own metallurgy on the part; inspection records; whether an equipment breakdown policy applies
Lost production and extra expense	Business income and extra expense	Waiting period, period of restoration, extended period; declared BI values vs. actual margins
Supplier, customer, pipeline or terminal outages	Contingent business income, often sublimited	Which dependencies are covered, and each sublimit
Orders that bar access	Civil authority	Distance and time limits against the actual order
Loss of power from the grid	Utility services endorsement, if bought	Whether overhead transmission lines are covered
Debris removal	Additional coverage, capped	Whether hazardous debris is billed as debris removal or as pollutant cleanup
Pollutant cleanup on your site	Small fixed sublimit in ISO forms	Notice deadlines; whether runoff, soil and water are excluded
Off-site cleanup and neighbors	Separate environmental and liability policies: pollution legal liability, sudden accidental pollution, storage tank liability	A matter for your broker and attorney, not your property claim
Code and standard upgrades	Ordinance or law coverage, to its limit; some energy wordings exclude added costs from laws or permits	Whether the rebuild must meet SB 900, newer NFPA editions or RMP changes
Fire protection impairments	Protective safeguards endorsement	Impairment logs, notices sent, inspection and testing records
Toll customers' material	Property of others wording and the tolling contract	Inventory by owner; who insures the material
Late-delivery penalties	Excluded from BI, along with fines, in one sample energy wording	Exposure under offtake contracts, for your attorney

Standard ISO numbers to know

Under the standard ISO business income form, income loss starts 72 hours after the physical loss, extra expense starts at once, and extended business income runs 60 days after operations resume. Civil authority pays up to 4 weeks for premises within 1 mile of the damage. Debris removal pays 25% of the paid direct loss plus the deductible, plus up to $25,000 more, and must be reported in writing within 180 days. Pollutant cleanup is $10,000 per location for the policy year. A business income limit below the coinsurance requirement cuts every income payment, though extra expense is exempt.

Protective safeguards

ISO form CP 04 11 excludes fire loss if you knew a scheduled sprinkler or alarm was impaired and did not tell the insurer, or did not keep it working. No notice is needed if a system shut off for breakage, leakage, freezing or opened heads is restored within 48 hours. Pull every impairment log now.

Surplus lines and large-risk policies often use manuscript or energy package wording that departs from ISO terms, and large risks with $5 million or more in insured property values are exempt from TDI form approval. Read each term against your own policy. How a policy applies to your facts is a legal question when it is disputed. We document the loss and present it; coverage interpretation in a dispute belongs with your attorney.

Check a coinsurance shortfall with our coinsurance penalty calculator.

Sources: Insurance Business (2025); ISO CP 00 30 and CP 04 11 specimens; BPP coverage form summary; Kinsale; sample energy package wording (Universal Sompo, not a Texas form); TDI commercial property filing checklist.

Damage and cleanup

Firefighting water, contaminated debris and corrosion: why the split matters

At a chemical plant, the fire is often not the largest physical cost. Suppression water, runoff, hazardous debris and corrosive residue can turn a property claim into a pollution and waste claim, with smaller limits and TCEQ duties. ITC disposed of about 387,000 barrels of liquid waste after its 2019 fire.

Damage pattern	Example	What it means for the claim
Blast overpressure	KMCO's control building took the worst damage. TPC's blasts were felt up to 30 miles away.	Your own plant goes to the property claim. Neighbors' damage goes to liability policies and your attorney.
Long-duration fire	TPC's fires burned more than a month. Shell Deer Park's 2023 fire burned on and off for three days.	Each day adds scope, firefighting cost and extra expense. Log dates and invoices daily.
Heat on vessels, tanks and piping	On a fire-damaged tank, forum engineers pointed to API 579 fitness-for-service review, hardness tests and a full hydrotest.	Repair or replace becomes an engineering dispute. Get your own assessment before accepting the carrier's.
Corrosive smoke and residue	At Bio-Lab, chlorine fumes and humidity formed acid droplets that corroded metal.	Damage can reach equipment and electronics far from the fire. Scope needs sampling, not a visual walk.
Suppression water and runoff	About 20,000 gpm went into ITC's containment before its wall failed.	A property claim becomes a pollution and waste claim.
Floodwater contamination	About 23,000 lb of organic material entered floodwater when two open wastewater tanks overflowed at Arkema.	Expect flood vs. fire vs. pollution sequencing arguments.
Loss of use, no physical damage	The CSB counted $12.3 million of PEMEX damage from loss of use alone.	Keep business interruption separate from physical loss.

Split cleanup four ways

Insured debris removal.

Decontaminating your own property.

Pollutant extraction from land or water.

Third-party and natural resource claims.

Policies treat each bucket differently, so map every invoice to one bucket as it arrives. Which bucket a cost belongs in, when disputed, is a coverage question for your attorney.

Who must clean up

In Texas the responsible party includes the owner or operator where a spill starts. If it cannot or will not respond, TCEQ may step in with state funds and seek penalties.

Hazardous debris

Disaster-generated hazardous waste stays under state and federal waste rules unless a disaster declaration changes them. Storage limits run 90 days for large generators, 180 days for small ones and 60 days for episodic events, which cannot be extended. Every manifest and disposal invoice is claim proof. Contaminated salvage is usually a disposal cost, not a credit.

Corrosion the walkthrough misses

Acidic residue settles on electrical contacts, instruments and control systems well outside the burn, and the damage can surface weeks later. We bring in industrial hygienists on a loss like this, every time, to test and document what contamination is present, where it migrated and at what levels, while the evidence still exists. The carrier's walkthrough captures what is visibly burned; the hygienist's documentation captures what is actually contaminated.

For tank farm fires, toll storage and the full ITC and Bio-Lab records, see our chemical and hazmat storage page.

Sources: CSB ITC report and Appendix E; CSB KMCO, TPC and Arkema reports; CSB Bio-Lab release (2026); CSB PEMEX report; KPRC (2023); Eng-Tips; TCEQ responsible party page; TCEQ RG-517c.

The business interruption fight

Measuring lost production: business interruption for a chemical plant

Marsh's 2026 report says business interruption now runs above the historical ratio of three times property damage, and reaches ten times on some claims. Marsh's loss values count property damage, debris removal and cleanup only, so income loss sits on top. For a plant, income loss is lost production times margin, and it can run for years.

How it is measured (claims practice; the policy wording controls)

Lost volume by unit and product, in pounds, tons or batches, projected from run rate, order book and campaign schedule
Times contribution margin, meaning price minus variable cost, plus continuing fixed costs: payroll, depreciation, debt service, fixed contracts
Plant inputs: nameplate vs. actual utilization, product mix, tolling fees, take-or-pay feedstock obligations that keep running, offtake commitments, and inventory on hand to sell during the outage
The form matters. ISO business income looks at prior net income, likely income absent the loss and continuing expenses. Energy forms may instead measure lost production income plus extra expense, capped at the loss avoided.

How we build it

We do not hand the carrier one calculation. We model the loss several independent ways, against seasonality, equipment lead times, permitting and the slow ramp a process plant actually requires, and use those models against each other. The look-back period matters too: a soft year inside a multi-year average can drag your baseline down when it does not reflect normal operations. Start organizing the numbers with our business income worksheet.

Restart is not recovery

Customers who switched suppliers may need to requalify your product before they return. That is what extended period of indemnity coverage is for, and the standard ISO extended period is only 60 days unless more was bought. Bio-Lab's Lake Charles plant, hit by Hurricane Laura in August 2020, reopened about 26 months later. Some units never come back: Bio-Lab decided not to restart its Conyers plant and listed it for sale, and 12News reported TPC was using what remained of its site as a terminal.

Extra expense to document

Outside firefighting contractors, pumps and foam (ITC called one about 31 hours into its fire; crews arrived about 45 hours in)
Moving production to another plant or to third-party manufacturers and warehouses, as Bio-Lab did
Refrigerated trailers or temporary storage to keep product stable (Arkema moved about 10,500 containers into nine refrigerated trailers)
Temporary generators; after a declared disaster, TCEQ allows ones that meet 30 TAC 106.511
Tolling product out, expedited freight, overtime and site security

3x+

Business interruption now exceeds three times property damage on large hydrocarbon losses, and reaches ten times on some claims.

Marsh, 100 Largest Losses, 29th ed. (2026)

$12.3M

of the CSB's PEMEX Deer Park damage figure was loss of use alone, with no physical equipment damage.

CSB PEMEX final report (2026)

3 years

after its 2019 explosion, TPC's butadiene production was still shut down.

Texas Tribune, December 2022

Sources: Marsh 29th ed. (2026); Texas Tribune (2022); CSB PEMEX, ITC, Arkema and Bio-Lab reports; 12News; Fire Engineering; TCEQ RG-517a; ISO CP 00 30.

Texas

What stretches the rebuild: permits, process safety reviews, equipment and standards

Permits, process safety reviews and equipment set the restoration clock as much as construction does. Document every delay as it happens, with dates, because the period of restoration is argued from that record.

TCEQ air authorization

After a declared disaster, TCEQ's guidance lets damaged sources be repaired to their permitted condition. A repair that may be a modification goes to the Air Permits Division, and a restart expected to emit a reportable quantity needs 10 days' notice, or notice as soon as feasible. How that guidance applies to a single-site fire is for counsel. Neighbors can slow permitting too: ITC's federal operating permit renewal drew a contested public hearing in 2023.

PSSR and management of change

OSHA's process safety standard requires a pre-startup safety review for new facilities, and for modified ones whose changes alter process safety information. Changes other than replacement in kind need management of change. Design changes add review time before restart. Whether your rebuild counts as new or modified is for counsel and your EHS lead.

EPA's RMP rule, status as of Oct. 20, 2026

Several 2024 provisions, including root cause analysis, third-party audits and safer technology analysis, carry a May 10, 2027 compliance date. EPA proposed revisions on Feb. 24, 2026 that would rescind the stand-alone natural hazard and power-loss provisions and keep root cause analysis. About 31,000 comments were filed, and no final rule was found as of Oct. 20, 2026. One law firm says the 2024 dates stay in force until a new rule is final. Which dates bind your design is for counsel.

SB 900 storage vessels

TCEQ's storage vessel program covers vessels of 21,000 gallons or more at petrochemical plants, refineries and bulk terminals, about 36,000 vessels. Vessels placed in service after Sept. 1, 2027 must meet new-vessel standards (API 650, NFPA 30 Chapter 22) and register within 30 days. Tanks rebuilt after that date may need an upgraded design; confirm with counsel and your engineer of record.

Equipment and code delay

Get dated vendor lead-time letters in writing for reactors, vessels, exchangers and compressors. Electrical gear is slow too: one contractor reports 40 to 65 weeks for pad-mount transformers and 52 to 80 weeks for medium-voltage switchgear in 2026. Under the standard ISO form, extra time spent meeting codes falls outside the period of restoration unless an endorsement for it was bought. Ordinance or law coverage pays added code costs only if you actually repair or rebuild. In 2026 the Texas Supreme Court held that code-compliance costs the insurers did not dispute as to coverage were amount-of-loss questions for appraisers.

Storms

Hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30. During Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, Marathon's Galveston Bay refinery lost power and shut multiple units, and PCI Nitrogen in Pasadena halted ammonium sulfate and sulfuric acid production. During Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, nearly 200 Texas facilities reported about 3.5 million lb of excess air pollution tied to shutdowns, restarts and power loss. TDI counted 7,237 Uri business interruption claims with $519.5 million paid. Arkema's Harvey loss shows how a storm can become a fire.

Sources: TCEQ RG-517a; KPRC (2023); 29 CFR 1910.119; 91 FR 8970 and the Federal Register extension; Haynes Boone; Spencer Fane; Beveridge & Diamond; TCEQ storage vessel memo; ALL4; Terrapin Construction Group; ISO CP 00 30 and CP 04 05; In re Ace American (Tex. 2026); TCEQ hurricanes page; ICIS (2024); Texas Tribune (2021); TDI winter weather summary.

Neighbors and closures

When a neighbor's explosion, a road closure or the Ship Channel shuts you down

Some of the largest losses around a plant fire land on businesses that never caught fire. Your own property policy is usually the dependable path, rather than waiting on the other plant's insurer.

Civil authority.

The TPC explosion triggered a civil authority evacuation. Indorama, across from the TPC site, regained access on Jan. 29, 2020, about nine weeks after the explosion. The standard ISO term pays up to 4 weeks for premises within 1 mile, so compare each order's radius and duration with your clause.

Shelter-in-place and closures.

During the 2019 ITC fire, Deer Park sheltered in place citywide from 12:50 p.m. March 17 to 6 a.m. March 18. SH 225 closed, and seven miles of the Houston Ship Channel closed from March 22. After Arkema, Highway 90 stayed closed until Sept. 4, 2017.

Contingent business income.

A plant that relies on one feedstock supplier, pipeline, terminal or key customer has contingent exposure. ITC's tanks held products for oil and chemical companies that leased them, and those lessees lost access when it burned. Check which dependencies your policy covers and each sublimit.

Physical damage from a neighbor.

An air-conditioning manufacturer about a mile from Bio-Lab's 2024 Georgia fire was paid $20 million by its own insurer for soot and debris damage. That insurer then sued Bio-Lab.

Utility interruption.

Arkema lost main power when CenterPoint transformers failed in Harvey floodwater. Hurricane Beryl cut power to more than 1.76 million CenterPoint customers. Utility services coverage is an endorsement, and overhead lines are often not covered automatically.

Recovery from the source can shrink in bankruptcy: TPC's plan eliminated more than 11,000 explosion-related claims. Neighbors also move fast. Bio-Lab opened a 24/7 reimbursement call center for residents and businesses nine days after its fire. A claim against the plant that caused your loss is a question for your attorney.

Sources: Insurance Business (2025); CSB ITC factual update and final report; CSB Arkema summary and report; Insurance Journal (2025); ICIS (2024); Rough Notes (2021); Texas Tribune (2022); Fox 5 Atlanta (2024); ISO CP 00 30.

What the carrier will try

The shortfalls in these claims are predictable. So is how we fight them.

Large industrial losses are contested on a handful of recurring fronts. None of these mean the carrier is acting in bad faith, it means the policy is complex and the default reading of it favors the insurer unless someone pushes back with documentation. Here is what they try, and what we do about each.

Cause

The origin gets blamed on wear, corrosion, latent defect or mechanical breakdown.

Our move: We assemble the maintenance and inspection records and work from the origin and materials findings, so the cause analysis rests on the evidence, not the first assumption.

Recommendations

Unfinished loss-control recommendations are raised against the claim.

Our move: We document the status and history of every recommendation and your responses. Their effect on coverage is a question for your attorney.

Pollution exclusion

Cleanup of runoff, soil and water is pushed under a pollution exclusion or a small sublimit.

Our move: We document fire-driven contamination through the hygienist's findings and sort every invoice into its bucket. Where the exclusion wording is in dispute, we work alongside your attorney.

Repair vs. replace

Fire-exposed vessels, piping and controls are called repairable.

Our move: We get an independent engineering assessment before the carrier's view becomes the scope.

Code upgrades

Upgrades required by standards or regulators are called betterment.

Our move: We tie each requirement to the ordinance-or-law coverage you bought.

Restoration period

The timeline is set shorter than real lead times, permits and PSSR.

Our move: Dated vendor letters, permit steps and requalification timelines set the real period, and we model the loss several ways.

BI values

Declared BI values, margins and ramp-up are challenged.

Our move: We rebuild margins and run rate from your production and financial records.

Flood vs. fire

In storm losses, the sequence of flood, power loss and fire decides which exclusion is raised.

Our move: Historian data, utility records and elevation surveys fix the timeline.

The specialists on the other side

Specialist	What they examine
Cause-and-origin investigator	Where and how the fire started
Metallurgist or materials engineer	Why the part failed
Fire protection engineer	Firewater, foam, sprinklers, spacing
Geotechnical or structural engineer	Containment, foundations, structures
Electrical and process safety engineer	Hazardous-area classification, PHAs, MOC records
Industrial hygienist or environmental consultant	Residue, runoff, soil, waste
Forensic accountant	Production records, margins, the BI projection

Records they will ask for

Several exist by rule. OSHA's process safety standard requires PHA revalidation at least every five years, compliance audits every three years with the two latest reports kept, and incident reports kept five years. Expect requests for insurer loss-control surveys and your responses too; the CSB cited them at KMCO, Arkema and ITC.

Reservation of rights, proof of loss and payment clocks

A reservation-of-rights letter often follows an origin that points to maintenance, pollution in the loss, flood involvement, unfinished recommendations, late notice, or operations that differ from what was disclosed at underwriting. Under the standard ISO form, a sworn proof of loss is due within 60 days after the insurer asks for it. Texas gives insurers 15 days to acknowledge a written claim, 15 business days to accept or reject once requested items arrive, and 5 business days to pay. An insurer liable for the claim that misses those deadlines owes 18% annual interest plus attorney's fees. Amount disputes can go to appraisal. The scope of an examination under oath is for counsel. Check your dates with our Texas prompt payment deadline calculator.

Subrogation

Once it pays, your insurer steps into your recovery rights against whoever caused the loss, and your duty to cooperate depends on the wording. Insurers do pursue the source. A Liberty Mutual unit sued Bio-Lab on Sept. 17, 2026 over more than $115,000 it paid for fallout it alleges corroded roofs and walls and damaged HVAC units at two rental properties. Waivers of subrogation in your contractor agreements belong in your attorney's review.

Sources: CSB KMCO, TPC, Arkema, ITC and Bio-Lab records; Marsh 29th ed.; 29 CFR 1910.119; Tex. Ins. Code 542.055 to 542.060; ISO CP 00 30; Insurance Business (Sept. 2026).

Checklist

Documents to pull this week

Pull and preserve these before anything is demolished, discarded or overwritten.

Policies and placement

every policy in force with full forms and endorsements (property and BI, equipment breakdown, environmental or pollution liability, GL and umbrella, stock and transit); broker submissions, statement of values, BI worksheets and declared BI values; every insurer loss-control survey with your response and the status of each recommendation.

The failure and the fire

DCS and historian data, alarm and event logs and shift logs, exported before systems are rebuilt; the failed component and nearby equipment under chain of custody, with photos, video and drone imagery; correspondence from the fire department, fire marshal, ATF, OSHA and CSB; emergency response contracts and invoices; your incident investigation file.

Process safety file

process safety information, P&IDs and as-built drawings; PHAs and the status of every action item; MOC records and PSSRs; mechanical integrity inspection and test records for vessels, piping, relief systems, controls and pumps; hazardous-area classification drawings; the two most recent compliance audits; fire protection inspection, testing and impairment logs with notices to the insurer.

Regulatory filings

CSB and NRC report numbers; TCEQ STEERS emissions-event reports and the basis for each emissions estimate; spill reports and 30-working-day follow-ups; Tier II, RMP and spill prevention plans; Title V and NSR air permits; any notice of violation.

Site and hazard data

flood maps, elevation surveys and hydrology studies; utility outage records and correspondence.

Production and commercial

three to five years of monthly production by unit and product; sales by customer and product, margins, budgets and forecasts; order book and backlog; tolling, offtake and feedstock contracts; force majeure notices sent and received; payroll registers; inventory by location and owner, including customer-owned material.

Fixed assets and rebuild

fixed-asset register, purchase records, replacement quotes and dated vendor lead-time letters.

Waste, environmental and neighbors

waste manifests, disposal invoices, and lab data for soot, residue, runoff and soil; third-party claim logs and letters from neighbors, the county and the state.

The insurance company's adjuster works for the insurance company.

After a major loss, the carrier sends its own adjuster, and often a forensic accountant and engineering consultants, all retained by the insurer. They are competent and they are not neutral; their job is to resolve the claim on terms favorable to the company that pays them. A public adjuster is the licensed counterweight: we represent the policyholder only, we build and present the claim, and we negotiate the settlement.

On a chemical plant loss the asymmetry is the whole problem. Expect the carrier to bring cause-and-origin investigators, metallurgists, fire protection and process safety engineers, industrial hygienists and forensic accountants. We document the full loss with the same rigor, and we are paid a percentage of what we recover, so our incentive is your number. We are licensed public adjusters, not attorneys: when a question turns on reporting duties, how the policy language applies in a dispute, or claims by or against neighbors, investigators or vendors, we work alongside your attorney rather than in place of one.

What happens after you call.

Loss review and policy analysis

We read the actual policy, limits, coinsurance, BI provisions, ordinance-or-law, exclusions, and assess the full scope of the loss before anyone commits to a number.

Document everything, including the latent damage

Structure, equipment, contamination, and contingent damage outside the burn area. We bring in industrial hygienists and the right experts to document corrosion and process-equipment loss the carrier's walkthrough misses, while the evidence still exists.

Build the business-interruption claim, modeled several ways

From real production and financial records: seasonality, lead times, permitting, and the right look-back baseline, modeled independently and used against each other to substantiate the full loss, not the carrier's truncated model.

Present, negotiate, and settle

We present the documented claim, contest the predictable shortfalls, and negotiate the settlement on your behalf through to resolution.

Questions process-facility owners ask

How soon do we have to report a chemical plant fire in Texas?

The CSB rule requires a report within 8 hours of an accidental release that causes a death, a serious injury or estimated property damage of $1 million or more. TCEQ's initial notice for a reportable emissions event, and its spill notice, run 24 hours. Which clocks apply to your release is a question for your attorney and EHS lead.

Does our call to the National Response Center count as notice to TCEQ?

No. TCEQ says a call to the NRC or the LEPC does not count as spill notice to the state. Report spills to TCEQ at 1-800-832-8224 as soon as possible and within 24 hours.

How is business interruption calculated for a chemical plant?

Lost volume by unit and product, times contribution margin, plus continuing expenses, projected from run rate, order book and campaign schedule. Marsh reports it now exceeds three times property damage on large hydrocarbon losses. Under the standard ISO form, income loss starts 72 hours after the physical loss and extra expense starts at once.

Is cleanup of firefighting water and contaminated soil covered?

It depends on the wording. Pollution exclusions and small cleanup sublimits often apply; the standard ISO pollutant cleanup amount is $10,000 per location per policy year. Separate debris removal, decontamination of your property, pollutant extraction and third-party claims, and sort every invoice into one of them.

Will the insurer blame corrosion or maintenance?

Expect it. Marsh links about 51% of major losses to management system failures, and maintenance failures run through the Texas CSB record. Your own metallurgy on the failed part and complete inspection records are the answer.

Should we let the insurer's engineers take the failed equipment?

Coordinate first. Hold it under chain of custody, and notify the carrier and possible defendants before any destructive testing. The legal effect of those steps is for your attorney.

Do we need a new air permit to rebuild?

Repairs to the permitted condition are treated differently from modifications. TCEQ's disaster guidance says to contact its Air Permits Division if a repair may be a modification. Whether that guidance fits a single-site fire is for counsel.

What if rebuilding takes longer than our indemnity period?

Check the period of restoration, any extended period of indemnity and any endorsement for code-driven delay. Under the standard ISO form, extended business income runs 60 days after operations resume unless more was bought. Document every permit, PSSR and lead-time delay as it happens.

A neighbor's plant exploded and we lost access. Are we covered?

Look at civil authority and contingent business income in your own policy. The standard ISO civil authority term pays up to 4 weeks for premises within 1 mile of the damage. After TPC, FM Global paid neighboring Indorama $50 million under a contingent sublimit on a $100 million claim, a cap Indorama disputes.

Will EPA's RMP rule changes affect our rebuild?

Possibly. Several 2024 provisions carry a May 10, 2027 compliance date, EPA proposed revisions on Feb. 24, 2026, and no final rule was found as of Oct. 20, 2026. Which dates bind your design is for counsel.

Can our insurer sue the equipment maker or the company that caused the fire?

Often, through subrogation once it pays, and your duty to cooperate depends on the wording. After Bio-Lab's 2024 fire, a Hanover unit sued to recover $20 million it paid a neighboring manufacturer. The legal questions are for your attorney.

Is a public adjuster the same as a lawyer?

No. A licensed public adjuster documents, presents and negotiates your first-party property claim. Texas law bars public adjusters from practicing law, so coverage disputes and legal questions go to your attorney, and we work alongside them.

What does it cost to hire a public adjuster?

We work on a percentage of the recovery, with no upfront cost. We are only paid if and when you recover, which means our incentive is aligned with maximizing your settlement. Fee specifics are discussed up front before you commit to anything.

Talk to us

Tell us what happened. We will tell you straight whether you have a fight worth having.

No cost, no obligation. The fastest path is the phone, for a major loss, call and talk to a person today. A licensed Texas public insurance adjuster will review the loss with you.

713-369-4300

Start a claim review

Tell us what happened. A licensed Texas public adjuster will review the loss with you, and tell you straight whether you have a fight worth having. The review is free.

For fire claims, we call you back within 1 hour and visit your property within 24 hours or less.

A major loss is decided in the first moves. Make yours count.

Talk to a public adjuster who works only for you. No upfront cost, we are paid a percentage only if you recover.

713-369-4300

Crossroads Insurance Recovery Advocates · TDI License 1924788

This page is general educational information about commercial property claims, not legal advice or advice on your specific claim. Crossroads Insurance Recovery Advocates, Texas public adjuster entity license #1924788.

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