“German Pellets must go!”

“We deserve clean air!”

“Dirty air not fair!”

“Our lives matter!”

Those were a few of the shouts heard as a crowd of almost 50 people carrying signs and American flags marched up and down Houston Avenue in front of the Port of Port Arthur to protest the German Pellets silo fire that is still smoldering and emitting smoke into the community after 51 days.

Led by environmental activist Hilton Kelley, citizens who marched ranged from young children to the elderly wearing masks and pushing walkers, all with one thing in common. They are fed up with the German Pellets company polluting their lungs and their community and the lack of action taken against them. One sign read, “Shape up or ship out,” and another read, “I can’t breathe.”

“We’re practicing our First Amendment rights to speak up and say what we want in our community,” Kelley said to the crowd. “This is how we get stuff done. It’s not about having three or four hundred people out here. It’s about having people out here with heart. This is what we need.”

The concern in the community is that the fire is still smoldering and emitting smoke, so residents have had long-term exposure that is ongoing. After almost two months of breathing in the particulate matter-filled toxic smoke all over their community, residents said they are racking up medical expenses, if they are even among those fortunate enough to afford it.

Sherita Solaire, whose front door opens to the sight of the silos, is now taking five kinds of medication and is on daily breathing treatments, something she said she has never had before in her life. Solaire said that no one has reimbursed her and everything she has to get is out-of-pocket. She said her husband has COPD and that the smoke has aggravated his condition.

Community members have been suffering from various respiratory ailments since the second fire in the pellet silo began the day before Easter. Even people who were in good health before the fire are experiencing ongoing issues, and they are experiencing everything from shortness of breath to chest pains.

Jeannie Johnson, Westside resident, said that she has been in the hospital in Houston with chest pains and breathing trouble and just got back yesterday. She has to go back to Houston for a follow-up next week. Johnson’s daughter, who has been driving her to doctor’s appointments, wanted her mother to stay with her in Houston, but Johnson, who teaches classes at BEAM UP (a children’s summer program), said she works and has usual things to do like go to the dentist and her life and home are here.

“I haven’t had any problems before now,” Johnson said. “I’m pretty healthy. I go to the gym at the Y(MCA). I take care of myself, but this is taking its toll on my body.”

Johnson said she hasn’t been sleeping well and wakes between 4 and 4:30 a.m. and has found that to be the time the smoke is the thickest. She said it smells so strong, like someone is barbecuing inside the house. She said she was going to get new air filters after the protest because she has to change them out (she has three) weekly now, whereas before, she said she didn’t even have to change them monthly.

Residents in the Westside community said their homes are saturated with the intense odor of smoke all the time, and no amount of air freshener masks it. Citizens said they can’t even enjoy their homes inside or outside anymore because of the pungent smell and thick smoke.

“It’s just all day and all night of the fumes in my house,” Zeta Wise, resident, said. “I’m smelling it in all of my rooms. It’s horrible. It really is. This has been since Easter Eve.”

Wise said she has allergies and the constant smoke has made it worse. She said she is constantly coughing, sneezing and spitting up things.

Kelley’s wife, Marie, is a school bus driver and said that even her school bus is saturated with smoke. Solaire said she goes to work and people tell her they can smell the smoke on her and in her clothes. Johnson said that the smoke was particularly thick and “smoking bad” Saturday morning before she headed out for the protest. The smell was detectable on all three ladies, as well as other residents who attended the protest.

Going outside isn’t even an option for community residents because the air is so filled with thick smoke and particulate matter that people are unable to stand it and even their children and grandchildren are being kept inside because of it. Residents are upset, and understandably so, that their quality of life is deteriorating because German Pellets hasn’t been heavily fined, hasn’t put out the fire, hasn’t been forced to shut down and run out of town.

Several residents expressed offense and outrage at the idea of relocation because Port Arthur is their home and why should they be the ones run out of it when it’s German Pellets who is doing the damage? Protesters made it clear that they wanted the problem of the heavy smoke resolved and the fire extinguished, but more than that they wanted German Pellets gone.

“It’s time for them to go away now, it’s really time because this should have been resolved long before now,” Wise said.