HOUSTON – Some southeast Houston residents claim no one warned them of the Valero blast earlier this month.

Those residents live in the Manchester area and say there was a ruptured tank and a chemical cloud, but the only warning they had was the explosion itself.

“I heard a loud boom,” said Thomas Corrales.

“It was a large cloud of dark smoke coming from that direction and it had a smell, a heavy odor,” he said.

“I heard an explosion and I said, ‘oh Lord what happened,’” said Ida Alvarado.

Corrales thought Valero’s telephone warning system would call if it were serious or the huge siren down the street would blare.

But he said he the sirens never went off.

Alvarado never heard the company’s shelter-in-place warning either.

“I think there should have been better communications, the sirens should have gone off, they should have done better communication to the community that there was a shelter in place in English and Spanish,” said Houston City Councilmember James Rodriguez.

He said Valero failed to warn residents of an imminent threat.

Valero disagrees.

In a statement, a spokesman said that the company’s community advisory panel revealed that the PA system and alerts worked well.

“It would be their responsibility to let us know in the community you know we live in this community I would say that we have every right to know,” said Corrales.

He said he expects his refinery neighbor to let him know if there is danger next door.