Five Steelworkers Killed In US Oil Refinery Blast

Five Steelworkers Killed in US Oil Refinery Blast on 2 April

5 April 2010

ICEM InBrief

Five members of the United Steelworkers (USW) were killed at a Tesoro Corp. oil refinery in Anacortes, US state of Washington, when an explosion occurred during a re-start of the refinery’s naphtha unit. Killed were three men at the scene, while two women died in the hours after the fiery explosion in a Seattle hospital.

Two other workers remain in critical condition.

The tragedy occurred in the early morning hours of 2 April. A Washington state labour investigator speculated that a fire and subsequent explosion occurred in a bank of boilers that heats fluids under high temperature and pressure in the production of naphtha, an extremely volatile hydrocarbon composite used as a feedstock in high-octane petrol.

The three process operators killed at the scene were Matthew Bowen, 31, Darrin Hoines, 43, and Daniel Aldridge, 50. The women, who died from severe burns and other injuries in the Seattle hospital, 110 kilometres from Anacortes, were operators Kathryn Powell, 29, and Donna Van Dreumel, 36. All were members of USW Local 12-591.

Severely injured were USW member Matt Gumbel, 34, and Lew Janz, 41, a supervisor who had been a long-time USW member.


USW Vice President Gary Beevers said it was vital that the cause of this blast is fully investigated so that “the rest of the oil industry (can) apply the lessons learned. There have been too many accidents and near-miss incidents in the oil refining industry. In honor of our brothers and sisters who were killed and seriously injured at the Tesoro refinery, we urge the industry to take steps to ensure an incident of this type never happens again.”

USW District 12 Director Robert LaVenture said, “While we mourn now, we will seek justice.”

US oil refineries are considered the least safe in the world due to age and poor safety processes. Last Friday’s Anacortes tragedy was the deadliest since the March 2005 explosion at BP/Amoco’s Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 and injured 170. As a result of the BP explosion, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and state inspection agencies began safety probes at all 150 US refineries.


From that, in April 2009, Tesoro’s Anacortes refinery was cited with 17 serious safety and health violations, defined as those with potential to cause death or serious injury. It fined the company US$85,700. Inspectors also found 150 instances of deficiencies and said Tesoro did not ensure safe work practices, and failed to update safety information when changes were made to equipment.

Tesoro appealed the fine and through a settlement negotiation process, in November 2009 the number of serious violations was reduced to three and the fine reduced to US$12,250.

The US Chemical Safety board, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industry, and USW’s Emergency Response Team and Safety and Health Department are all investigating the deadly 2 April explosion.

Tesoro, an independent, downstream refiner and retail marketer of petroleum products based in San Antonio, Texas, operates seven refineries in the US states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, North Dakota, and Washington. The Anacortes, Washington, refinery has a production capacity of 130,000 barrels per day, and produces gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel from crude oil brought in from Alaska.