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Scene reveals signs of pressure wave U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board investigator begins work at BP Texas refinery where explosion took 15 lives Pam Easton Associated Press Writer
Crumpled trailers, damaged cars and signs of a pressure wave were visible as the lead investigator into the March 23 deadly explosion at a BP refinery got her first tour of the site.
Angela Blair, with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, said March 28 she saw quite a bit of blast damage in the area where some of the 15 who died worked in trailers.
“Those are not substantial structures and there was a very significant amount of broken trailers and cars with their windows blown out and debris everywhere but no fire damage,” she said. Blair said significant fire damage was visible on the other side of the unit, an indication of a fire on the ground on one side of the unit and a pressure wave out toward the trailers.
“It is very sobering to see first hand the place where 15 souls were taken,” Blair said. “We are going to investigate this accident to the deepest level possible and to the broadest extent possible so that our mission to prevent this from happening here or at any other refinery can be accomplished.”
Blair said investigators hoped to get clearance March 29 to check out the isomerization unit and begin measuring the extent of the damage from Wednesday’s explosion. Workers offered counseling About 2,200 contract workers were back at the plant on March 28 along with BP employees, said BP spokesman Bill Stephens. Some employees took the day off to attend the funerals of co-workers. A makeshift memorial outside the plant’s front gate continued to grow with individual floral memorials for two of the victims, Art Ramos and Lorena Cruz. Workers hugged and comforted each other.
The workers were offered counseling and underwent security briefings before returning to their job sites. Some of those who worked near or in the site of the explosion were told they could go home, but many stayed.
Stephens said that the refinery is back to normal operations except for the unit affected by the blast.
The explosion at the 1,200-acre plant shot flames, ash and blackened metal into the sky — blowing out windows a half a mile away and injuring more than 100 workers and residents. Nine people remained hospitalized March 28, five of them in intensive care, according to a hospital spokesman.
Three funerals were held March 28 in neighboring Baytown for Morris King, 57; Rafael Herrera, 27; and Larry Linsenbardt, 58.
King and Linsenbardt worked for J.E. Merit Constructors Inc., a Houston-based subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., based in Pasadena, Calif. Herrera worked for another California contractor, Fluor Corp. All 15 killed were contract workers; 12 worked for J.E. Merit and the rest worked for Fluor. Investigative team interviewing Blair said earlier that her team had talked for three hours with at least one unit operator working at the time of the explosion and got “good, very detailed information.” She wouldn’t discuss specifics.
The blast occurred in the plant’s isomerization unit as a portion of it was brought up to full production after a two-week shutdown for routine maintenance.
Preliminary evidence suggests a flammable liquid and vapor were released and then ignited as the equipment was restarted, Blair said.
She said investigators are examining equipment that feeds the isomerization reactor, which converts the chemicals pentane and hexane, both highly flammable, into isopentane and isohexane, which boosts the octane rating of gasoline.
“We may be able to fairly quickly say what physically happened,” Blair said. “But as to why there were 15 people killed and so many other people injured, those answers take a lot longer to get at.”
The explosion was the third accident at the plant in a year. An explosion during maintenance in March 2004 forced an evacuation, but no one was injured. Two workers died in September after they were burned with superheated water.
Stephens said a moment of silence would be held at BP plants around the world at 1:20 p.m. March 30, exactly one week after the explosion and fire.
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