Texas Refinery Explosion Kills 14

All but one of about 1,800 workers at a BP oil refinery have been accounted for after overnight search efforts following the thunderous blast that killed 14 workers and injured more than 100 other people, officials said Thursday.

"We think we've found all the people," refinery manager Don Parus said.

BP refinery records indicate the one unaccounted-for worker checked out and left the refinery, but no one has heard from him, Parus said. Those who died were all contractors for Los Angeles-based field services company J.E. Merit, he said.

The fiery blast Wednesday at BP's 1,200-acre plant shot flames high into the sky, forced school children to cower under their desks and showered plant grounds with ash and chunks of charred metal.

"Have you ever heard the thunder real loud? It was like 10 times that," said Charles Gregory, who was with several co-workers inside a trailer tank when the floor started rumbling.

The blast ripped through one of the most volatile areas of the refinery, where workers were busy boosting the octane level of gasoline, CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan reports.

Rescue crews searched for survivors or bodies into Wednesday night, several hours after the 1:20 p.m. explosion. An undetermined number of the plant's 1,800 workers were unaccounted for.

Valerie Perez was among those standing vigil outside the refinery fence late Wednesday, concerned about the fate of her 18-year-old husband, a BP worker who hadn't contacted her all afternoon.

Perez, who has a 3-month-old baby, said her husband always takes his cell phone to work but left it behind Wednesday.

"I'm nervous," she said, holding back tears.

About 433,000 barrels of crude oil are processed a day at the plant, producing 3 percent of the U.S. supply. Other than the unit affected by the blast, the rest of the refinery was running normally, said BP spokesman Hugh Depland.

Gasoline prices could rise slightly because of the explosion because the plant is such a large gas producer. Gasoline futures rose nearly 2 cents in late trading Wednesday on news of the explosion. Shortly before dawn Thursday, that increase had eased, with gas futures up just over a penny from the close of the Wednesday trading day.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately known. It occurred in a part of the plant used to boost the octane level of gasoline. Federal investigators will conduct a preliminary review of the accident.

"We have not had time to investigate causes, and we will not speculate." Parus said. "But at this time, terrorism is not a primary focus of our concern."

Wenceslado de la Cerda, a 50-year-old retired firefighter, said the blast shook the ground, rattled windows and knocked ceiling panels to the floor.

"Basically, it was one big boom," he said. "It's a shame that people have to get killed and hurt trying to make a dollar in these plants, but that's part of reality."

Dixie Walker waited outside a hospital for news of his nephew, Steven Walker, a contract worker for BP. The blast blew off his nephew's uniform. "He was sitting there in his boots and underwear when the rescue team found him," Walker told the Houston Chronicle.

"Words cannot begin to express how I and the people of BP feel right now. This is an extremely sad day for Texas City and BP," Parus said. "We have called in extended staff to provide every possible assistance to the families."

BP employs about 1,800 people in Texas City, which has a population of about 40,000. The plant and town have dealt with two other refinery accidents within the last year.

The explosion Wednesday and another in March 2004 are among a long history of incendiary incidents, some deadly, that have cost the facility's owners millions of dollars in fines and lawsuits, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.

BP's Texas City refinery and its parent company, BP North America Inc., have been fined more than $172,000 by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for safety incidents - including the deaths of two workers - that happened in the last 12 months.

On March 4, BP North America Inc. was fined $109,500 for safety violations following a Sept. 2 accident that killed two Texas City workers.

The two employees and a third man who survived were burned when pressurized, superheated water was released from a 12-inch check valve.

OSHA said it fined the company for one alleged willful violation and seven alleged serious violations associated with the incident following an inspection by the agency's Houston office. The alleged willful violation was issued for failing to relieve trapped pressure within a pipe.

The BP Texas City oil refinery was also fined $63,000 by OSHA following an investigation into a March 30, 2004, explosion and fire in which no one was injured.

Texas City is the site of the worst industrial accident in U.S. history. In 1947, a fire aboard a ship at the Texas City docks triggered a massive explosion that killed 576 people and left fires burning in the city for days.

"Welcome to life in Texas City," said Marion Taylor, 55, shortly after the explosion. "I was born here and pretty much, it happens from time to time."