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Personal Safety in Public Places: Who is Responsible for Your Personal Security at a Store, Restaurant, or Other Public Location? Like virtually everyone else in the United States, you spend a fair amount of your time in public places like stores, restaurants, entertainment venues, offices, and so forth. You find yourself in garages, parking lots, and in different types of establishments at different times of the day and even of the night. When you enter and exit business establishments, when…

Who Is Liable in “Mass Shootings” and Other Acts of Public Violence? As the recent mass shooting incidents in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio, have tragically demonstrated, we live in a society where acts of “planned” or “premeditated” public violence have become a matter of great concern in regard to public safety. Although we will avoid the very real issues of concern to both the law enforcement and civil libertarian communities, at The Doan Law Firm we believe that…

Catastrophic Kentucky Gas Pipeline Explosion Devastates Neighborhood A major gas pipeline explosion in the middle of the night on August 1, 2019, devastated a mobile home park in the Kentucky community of Moreland and resulted in a tower of fire that soared 300 feet into the air and could be seen throughout Lincoln County. In immediate aftermath of the shattering explosion, one person was confirmed dead and five other people were hospitalized with serious injuries. Seven other residents initially were…

Shortly after 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, an explosion ripped through a processing unit at the Baytown Olefins Plant, an ExxonMobil oil refinery. The Olefins Plant explosion resulted in a large fire in the unit, the blaze contained by firefighters but still burning on Thursday. A large and growing smoke plume arose from the explosion site, drifted across the city of Baytown. The smoke plume potentially contains harmful toxins because the Baytown refinery processes light hydrocarbons, including propylene…

An explosion was reported at Exxon’s Baytown chemical plant this morning. According to the City of Baytown, the fire started in a unit that stores polypropylene. Exxon has mobilized their emergency response teams which advised a shelter-in-place be issued west of the plant and south of Highway 330. Multiple plumes of thick black smoke can be seen rising from the Exxon chemical plant. First responders are continuing to battle the chemical fire. There have not been any reported injuries. The…