Texas Refinery Toll Rises To 15

The lone worker unaccounted for after an explosion at a BP oil refinery has died, bringing the death toll to 15 in a blast that also injured more than 100 people, officials said Thursday.

BP spokesman Bill Stephens said the man was dead but released no details on whether the body was found in the rubble or elsewhere. Earlier in the day, officials said there were indications the man had checked out and left the refinery after Wednesday's explosion.

About 1,800 people work the plant, but it was unclear how many were there at the time of the blast.

The fiery explosion shot flames high into the sky, forced schoolchildren to cower under their desks and showered plant grounds with ash and chunks of charred metal. Windows rattled more than five miles from the 1,200-acre plant near Houston.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.

On Thursday, reports Joss Briggs of CBS radio affiliate KPRC, the refinery was humming along with the normal sounds of engines and steam rising above the crude oil processor. Briggs was told production is steady. The only apparent signs of the horrific explosion were the flags, gently waving at half-staff, and the scorched hole that used to be an octane processing unit.

There was a very somber tone at the convention center, where people were coming in to find out whether a loved one was killed in the explosion.

Most of those who died were contractors for J.E. Merit Constructors Inc., a field services provider and subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. in Pasadena, Calif., refinery manager Don Parus said.

• no previous page
• next

1/2