Industrial Accidents Texas

An explosion ripped through a metal-fabricating plant as the employees were about to shut it down for the holidays, killing eight workers and hurling body parts as far as 100 yards. Two other workers were injured in the blast Sunday night at the Wyman Gordon Forging Co. plant near Houston. They were listed in stable condition. The cause of the explosion was not known, said Harris County fire investigator Bill Anders.

A construction trench collapsed Saturday, killing three workers who were buried in 14 feet of dirt, authorities said. Workers who began digging through the rubble discovered Gerardo Sanchez Vasquez after hearing his pleas for help and finding his head protruding from the collapsed ground. The bodies of his two buried colleagues were located a few hours after he was removed. Vasquez, 49, was pronounced dead shortly after he was flown to a hospital in Houston, spokeswoman Amy Berryman said.

A federal safety agency fined Phillips Petroleum Co. $5.7 million Thursday and cited it for hundreds of safety violations in connection with the October explosion that killed 23 workers at a Texas chemical plant. Fish Engineering & Construction Inc., which was performing service work under contract, also was cited for safety violations and fined $729,600.

Two men died Friday when they were overcome by a fumes from a toxic chemical being loaded into a tanker ship and fell into the tank. Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Clingenpeel said the bodies of the victims had not yet been retrieved because the tanker was filled with ethylene dichloride, a highly flammable petrochemical. Another man was injured in the incident, the cause of which was under investigation, Clingenpeel said.

Phillips 66 Co. will pay a record $4 million to settle hundreds of safety citations issued by federal inspectors after a 1989 explosion here in which 23 people were killed and 130 others were injured, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Thursday. The settlement was the largest amount ever paid to the OSHA in the 20-year history of the organization but considerably less than the $5.7 million in fines originally recommended.

The explosion boomed through the Atlantic Richfield chemical plant like a thunderclap, then a ball of fire shot 200 feet into the night sky, illuminating the Houston Ship Channel. By the time the fire had been contained in the early hours of Friday morning, 17 people were dead and five were injured. A storage tank had been flattened like a soft drink can crushed in a vise.

A chemical cloud floated through an industrial area and engulfed a school Friday, making nearly 100 children and adults ill with nausea and breathing problems, authorities said. Most of the victims were released from hospitals after treatment. It was not known where the chemical cloud originated.

As many as 7,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Port Arthur, Tex., after a leaking crude oil tank at a Chevron plant created a noxious cloud of gas with traces of hydrogen sulfide, officials said. More than 20 people were treated and released at hospitals for minor reactions, most for fume inhalation, officials said.

Workers using skimmers and absorbent pads mopped up sections of a 40,000-gallon oil spill but said it still threatened a wildlife habitat along Galveston Bay. A 10-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway remained closed as well. A 10-inch pipeline ruptured before midnight Thursday when Amoco Pipeline Co. workers were transferring light crude oil to a barge at the company's High Island terminal in Galveston's east bay, a company spokesman said.

Two men died Friday when they were overcome by a fumes from a toxic chemical being loaded into a tanker ship and fell into the tank. Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Clingenpeel said the bodies of the victims had not yet been retrieved because the tanker was filled with ethylene dichloride, a highly flammable petrochemical. Another man was injured in the incident, the cause of which was under investigation, Clingenpeel said.

A wreath of blue and white flowers joined memorials of roses and poinsettias at the gate of a Houston metal-fabricating factory where an explosion killed eight workers. Cliff Hearn, whose brother-in-law Michael Anthony Gunn died in the blast, knelt at the gate to place the flowers. Asked how the family was holding up, Hearn said: "Not good, not good. It's just a terrible, terrible tragedy." Steven Nagy, 29, also was killed by the Sunday night blast at the Wyman-Gordon Forging Co. plant.

An explosion ripped through a metal-fabricating plant as the employees were about to shut it down for the holidays, killing eight workers and hurling body parts as far as 100 yards. Two other workers were injured in the blast Sunday night at the Wyman Gordon Forging Co. plant near Houston. They were listed in stable condition. The cause of the explosion was not known, said Harris County fire investigator Bill Anders.

Getting zapped with 14,400 volts was enough to set his clothes on fire, but John Mays says about all he remembers "was one big flash." Co-workers put out the flames Tuesday, but the shock to his muscles kept the construction worker from letting go of an electrical transformer he had been working on. "That's when I came to. I told the guys to get some help. . . . I was stuck there for a while," Mays, 47, said from Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

A fire Wednesday in a chicken processing plant sent 21 people to the hospital with burns and with injuries from being trampled as people tried to escape, officials said. The fire broke out late in the morning at the Pilgrim's Pride Corp. plant when a hydraulic line on a fry cooker came loose, Fire Chief Larry McRae said. Hot oil escaped and got into a burner, which caught fire, he said. The fire spread, but was quickly put out by the plant's own firefighting system, McRae added.

Workers using skimmers and absorbent pads mopped up sections of a 40,000-gallon oil spill but said it still threatened a wildlife habitat along Galveston Bay. A 10-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway remained closed as well. A 10-inch pipeline ruptured before midnight Thursday when Amoco Pipeline Co. workers were transferring light crude oil to a barge at the company's High Island terminal in Galveston's east bay, a company spokesman said.

Phillips 66 Co. will pay a record $4 million to settle hundreds of safety citations issued by federal inspectors after a 1989 explosion here in which 23 people were killed and 130 others were injured, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Thursday. The settlement was the largest amount ever paid to the OSHA in the 20-year history of the organization but considerably less than the $5.7 million in fines originally recommended.

Firefighters in Pearland, Tex., extinguished a fire at a chemical packaging plant in which barrels exploded like a string of firecrackers, burning two workers. The blaze at the Solvents & Chemical Inc. plant, which began late Friday morning and burned for 20 hours, was declared out at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, Police Capt. R.J. Cuna said. Investigators expected to pinpoint by Monday what triggered the disaster, Cuna said.

A series of blasts blew the roof off a building at an explosives plant complex Thursday, rocking homes more than a mile away and injuring at least five people, authorities said. A fire of unknown origin raced through the building at Jet Research Center Inc., a manufacturer of explosives for oil production, triggering the explosions, police in this community of 3,000 said.

Arco Chemical Co. agreed Thursday to pay a record $3.48 million in fines to the federal government for safety violations cited after a massive explosion at its Channelview, Tex., plant last July killed 17 people and sent a huge ball of flames shooting 200 feet into the night sky. Under terms of the agreement, the subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Atlantic Richfield Co. will also take measures to ensure workplace safety at the plant as well as three other company facilities.

About 1,000 people forced from their homes because of a fire at a nearby chemical plant were allowed to return home early Sunday, authorities said. Officials said the fire was allowed to burn itself out to protect firefighters and to prevent chemical runoff. The cause of the Saturday fire was being investigated.