March 25, 2005
Houston Chronicle
'We all want to know what happened and why'
TEXAS CITY - The roiling black smoke that erupted from BP's stricken Texas City refinery was gone Thursday, seemingly vanquished by a sun-filled azure sky. But as federal inspectors began probing the nation's deadliest refinery blast in a decade and authorities worked to identify the 15 dead, this Galveston Bay city still seemed wrapped in a bitter cloud of tragedy.
Federal investigators, some of whom arrived within half an hour of Wednesday afternoon's explosion, acknowledged it may take up to a year to determine the blast's cause. Investigators from the British oil company were expected to arrive at the refinery's shattered plant today.
"I heard many harrowing stories," BP's chief executive officer, Lord John Browne, said after viewing the wreckage Thursday. "We all want to know what happened and why."
The explosion at the 1,200-acre plant bordering Texas 146 occurred as workers attempted to restart the refinery's isomerization unit after a two-week shutdown for maintenance. "This is one of the most vulnerable times," said John Miles, regional director for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
During the past seven years, workers have been seriously injured or killed during such restart operations at five refineries or chemical plants, national figures compiled by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board reveal.
"This is the largest loss of life in a petrochemical incident in a decade," said Stephen Selk, an investigation manager for that agency, who has investigated major petrochemical accidents for 20 years.
Built in 1934, the plant is one of the region's oldest. It employs 1,100 BP workers and 2,200 contract workers.
In the past five years, the facility has been inspected by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality investigators about 75 times. On each occasion, multiple violations have been identified.
FBI and Department of Homeland Security spokesmen discounted Thursday reported claims that the explosion had been the work of Islamic terrorists. Reuters news agency reported groups identifying themselves as al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in the United States of America and Army of the Levant claimed responsibility for the blast.
"There's no evidence to suggest there is any outside group involved in (Wednesday's) explosion," said FBI spokesman Al Tribble. "There's no criminal investigation as it pertains to terrorism at this time."
Authorities said more than 100 people, in and outside the refinery, were injured in the blast. And, as investigators began unraveling the puzzling question of cause, medical authorities continued the task of caring for the injured and identifying the dead.
Eight workers remained in critical condition at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
Twenty-three of the victims were treated at UTMB, where emergency director Dr. Brian Zachariah said several were "literally fighting for their lives." About a fourth of the injured suffered burns, said burn surgeon Dr. David Herndon. Five of those taken to the Galveston hospital had been released by Thursday night.
Workers assigned the sad task of recovering the dead experienced an unpleasant shock Thursday morning when they found the body of a previously unsuspected 15th victim in the rubble. Until the body was found, BP officials thought the worker had not been on site at the time of the explosion.
Meanwhile, relatives of the known and presumed dead held a grim vigil at Texas City's convention center, awaiting a statement from the county medical examiner.
DNA TESTING FOR SOME IDS
As tearful relatives, some of whom carried photographs of their loved ones, milled about the hall, Chief Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik released the names of six confirmed dead. Relatives of five other workers said they suspected their loved ones also had been killed — a suspicion fueled by an official summons to the convention center.
In some cases, DNA testing will be needed to identify the victims — a process Pustilnik said could take weeks, if not months.
Most of the victims died from blunt-force injury, he said, and likely were knocked unconscious or killed instantly. "I cannot find any evidence there was suffering," Pustilnik said.
Eleven of the 15 killed had been employees of Jacobs Engineering or its JE Merit Constructors subsidiary. Some of the workers had been in a staff trailer about 150 yards from the explosion.
About 375 of Jacobs and Merit employees had been employed as contract workers at the plant.
Another contract firm, Fluor Corp., said Thursday that three of its employees on site for maintenance management and other consulting matters were also killed in the blast. Fluor had 114 employees at the plant the day of the accident. The three employees were not working on the unit that exploded, but were meeting in a building near the explosion, a company spokesman said.
BP's Browne said he came to Texas City to help regardless of whether the victims had been contract workers or employees of his company.
"I came to Texas to assure them that the full resources of BP will be used to help the bereaved, the injured and all others affected by the explosion. ... We are responsible for what happens inside the boundary of our property."
Asked by reporters whether the refinery, which processes about 3 percent of the nation's oil supply into gasoline and petrochemical products, was running full-tilt to take advantage of high prices, he responded the company always has "safety first in mind."
"We do not produce day to day just to make a quick buck," he said.
When asked whether he plans to visit victims' families, he said, "I don't think that would be appropriate unless I was asked."
Wednesday's blast affected a relatively small area of the plant, but the concussion was felt for miles around.
'BIG BALL OF FIRE'
Gregory Nelson, 45, a La Marque carpenter, said he was hanging drywall at a local business when he felt his ladder shake. He turned toward the refinery and saw "a big ball of fire followed by a bigger ball of fire and then a big bang," he said.
"I saw pipes and debris going up into the air and then black, black thick smoke."
Co-worker James Godfrey said, "It felt like a freight train running right through here. Some of the windows broke out. All of the workers ran to the back of the building, away from the explosion. We didn't know if there would be more explosions."
Workers in other nearby businesses reported that the shock knocked pictures off walls. Across the bay in Galveston, visitors felt the ground tremble and feared there had been a terrible explosion at that city's port.
On Thursday, Ruth Hock, 47, who was at the nearby Dunn Heat Exchangers Inc. when the blast struck, maneuvered a large wreath of red roses into position outside the BP refinery.
"It just made you sick to your stomach," she said of the explosion, "from fear."
Chronicle reporters Richard Stewart, Dale Lezon, Lynn Cook, Thom Marshall and Steve McVicker contributed to this report.
kevin.moran@chron.com dina.cappiello@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/3101647