Wednesday morning around 10:30 a.m., a fire broke out in a hydrotreater heat exchanger unit that was undergoing routine maintenance at the ExxonMobil Beaumont refinery on the Texas Gulf Coast. 12 contract workers were injured and at least 7 were hospitalized. 4 were listed in critical condition with burn injuries. (Sources: Erwin Seba, Naveen Arul, Gerald E. McCormick, and Marguerita Choy, Reuters; and Tim Monzingo and Dan Wallach, Houston Chronicle Fuel Fix Blog, 4/17/13)
The cause of the flash fire that injured a dozen contract workers at the ExxonMobil Beaumont refinery was not clear, though one report indicates that the workers might have been welding on the heat exchanger when the fire broke out. Federal investigators, plant officials, and union officials were among those searching for evidence regarding the cause of the fire that burned the contact workers on Wednesday.
The hearts and prayers of the Beaumont industrial accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC are with the injured contract workers and their families at this time.
The Unit Where the Fire Broke Out was Undergoing Routine Maintenance
The hydrotreater unit where the fire apparently broke out at the ExxonMobil Beaumont refinery had been shut down for routine maintenance in a planned turnaround cycle at the time of the industrial accident. The fire was reportedly quickly contained. The injured workers were contract employees from KT Maintenance, Brock Services LLC, and Signature Industrial Services.
The ExxonMobil Beaumont refinery processes about 350,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The hydrotreater unit helps remove harmful substances from the crude so that it will comply with environmental regulations. Our Beaumont industrial accident attorneys note that the heat exchanger heats input and cools output in part by placing the densely packed pipes close to each other to allow temperature interchange.
Some union officials are concerned that planned maintenance turnarounds used to occur every three years, but now generally occur only every four or five years, which might place workers at greater risk of fires, explosions, and injuries.
A Bad Week for Industrial Accidents in Texas
The industrial accident at the ExxonMobil Beaumont refinery comes during a week of tragedy in Texas. A fertilizer plant explosion and fire also on Wednesday claimed more than a dozen lives and injured more than 100 people in West, Texas. The disaster in West, blamed on ammonium nitrate, is being compared to the terrible tragedy in Texas City in 1947 where a cargo ship filled with ammonium nitrate exploded and killed about 600 people.
Additionally, our Beaumont industrial accident attorneys mention that a power outage along the Texas Gulf Coast caused a fire in another refinery and halted operations at other facilities this week. Read more about the many refinery operations problems this week by clicking on the link.
Contact the Beaumont Industrial Accident Attorneys at Denena Points, PC with Your Questions after You or Your Loved One Suffers Injury
We always provide a FREE, no obligation initial legal consultation to discuss the specific accident and evaluate your potential eligibility for full financial compensation for your injuries. You need to know that whether a worker is a contract worker or employee could affect the types and amounts of compensation that s/he could claim after an accident. Your legal consultation is entirely confidential. Call us today at 281-369-4363 or reach us through our online contact form. Put our Beaumont industrial accident attorneys’ more than 15 years of experience successfully resolving complex accident cases to work for your benefit.
Read More About Fire at Beaumont ExxonMobil Refinery Injuries 12 Workers, 4 Critically…