Natural gas fire in northeastern KY about 80 miles west of Ashland, KY

From an Article by Steve Rogers, WTVQ, ABC News 36, May 5, 2020

FLEMING COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) – An investigation is underway Tuesday morning after a gas line explosion caused a huge fire off Highway 1013 in Fleming County on Monday afternoon, May 4th, according to Fleming County Emergency Management.

The pipeline is owned by Texas Eastern, which has a history in the state, including a fatal explosion last summer in Lincoln County. But despite the two incidents, experts say such explosions are rare.

In the video, shot by pilot Josh Clark, flames can be seen blazing through timberland on a hill. The fire was reported just before 5:00 p.m.

The pipeline explosion was three miles outside of Hillsboro, according to emergency management officials. The explosion and subsequent fire was in a remote area. No homes or businesses were threatened, according to emergency management. No one was hurt.

The pipeline belongs to Texas Eastern, according to emergency management officials. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

An estimated 200 acres on the hillside burned, according to emergency management. No land in the Daniel Boone National Forest was affected, according to officials.

The fire was extinguished on Monday night (5/4/20) and Texas Eastern secured the area so repairs and an investigation could begin Tuesday morning. Residents said on Facebook the explosion could be heard and smoke could be seen for miles.

This is the third Texas Eastern pipeline explosion in the state in the last 17 years and the second in less than a year.

The Lincoln County explosion on Aug. 1, 2019 killed one person, injured more than a dozen, forced the evacuation of 75 people from the Indian Camp mobile home park, destroyed five homes, damaged 14 others and burned about 30 acres. including railroad tracks owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Corporation.

Lawsuits still are pending over that explosion.

On Nov. 2, 2003 in Morehead, a Texas Eastern pipeline released about 167,100 million cubic feet of natural gas which ignited. There were no fatalities or injuries as a result of that explosion.

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See also: Eastern Kentucky pipeline explodes, the second in the year, Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 2020

A spokesman for Enbridge, the Canadian-based energy conglomerate that owns the Texas Eastern Transmission Co. pipeline, said in a statement that company crews are on-site and have “secured the area.”

The 30-inch pipe that exploded, Line 10, feeds into the Texas Eastern System — a network of 9,100 miles of piping that stretches from Texas to New York and moves 20% of America’s natural gas.

About 690 of those piping miles run through the state of Kentucky, from Lewis County on the Ohio border to Monroe County on the Tennessee border.

Adjacent Lines 15 and 25, which are also part of the Texas Eastern, have also been shut down, according to the pipeline safety administration.

These natural gas pipelines have a history of fatal blasts before this Kentucky explosion.

Veterinarian Gundi Rhoades lives in Inverell, NSW, Australia

From an Article by Gundi Rhoades, Sydney Morning Herald, December 26, 2019

Bulls cannot breed at Inverell. They are becoming infertile from their testicles overheating. Mares are not falling pregnant, and through the heat, piglets and calves are aborting.

My work as a veterinarian has changed so much. While I would normally test bulls for fertility, or herds of cattle for pregnancy, I no longer do, because the livestock has been sold. A client’s stud stock in Inverell has reduced from 2000 breeders to zero.

I once assisted farmers who have spent their lives developing breeding programs, with historic bloodlines that go back 80 years. These stud farmers are now left with a handful of breeders that they can’t bear to part with, spending thousands keeping them fed, and going broke doing it.

Cattle that sold for thousands are now in the sale yards at $70 a head. Those classed as too skinny for sale are costing the farmer $130 to be destroyed. They are all gone and it was all for nothing. The paddocks are bare, the dams dry, the grass crispy and brown. The whole region has been completely destocked and is devoid of life.

For 22 years, I have been the vet in this once-thriving town in northern NSW, which, as climate change continues to fuel extreme heat, drought and bushfires, has become hell on Earth.

Here, we are seeing extreme weather events like never before. The other day we had about eight centimetres of rain in 20 minutes. These downpours are like rain bombs. They are so ferocious that a farmer lost all of his fences, and all it did was silt up the dam so he had to use a machine to excavate the mud.

Most farmers in my district have not a blade of grass remaining on their properties. Topsoil has been blown away by the terrible, strong winds this spring and summer. We have experienced the hottest days that I can remember, and right now I can’t even open any windows because my eyes sting and lungs hurt from bushfire smoke.

For days, I have watched as the bushland around us went up like a tinderbox. I just waited for the next day when my clinic would be flooded with evacuated dogs, cats, goats and horses in desperate need of water and food.

The impact of the drought on wildlife is devastating to watch, too. Members of the public are bringing us koalas, sugar gliders, possums, galahs, cockatoos and kangaroos on a daily basis.

The koalas affect me the most. To see these gorgeous, iconic animals dying from thirst is too hard to bear. We save some, but we lose just as many.

The whole town is devastated. My business has halved. But with no horses to breed, no cattle to test and care for, what am I going to do? I have worked day and night to build a future for my family, but who would want to buy our property out here? Who would want to buy a vet clinic in a town where there are no animals to treat because it’s too hot and dry? Where the cattle become infertile from the 40-degree heat. All this on black, baked ground.

I am 53 years old. Can I start again?

Climate change for us is every day, and I am not suffering on the same level as my friends, my clients and the helpless animals I treat. As a veterinarian I am becoming more and more distressed, not just about the state of my town, but the whole world.

Bushfire smoke moves over Inverell.

Personally, I have had weeks when I just cry. It just bloody hurts me. I also have times when I get really angry and I start to swear, which I have never done in my life.

I also have times when I think about the potential this country has to create a renewable future with clean, green energy, and end our reliance on fossil fuels.

You only have to look at how resilient our farmers are in the face of devastating, extreme weather conditions to understand that we can make a powerful, meaningful difference to our future.

The government has no idea what it’s like for us. It has no empathy. Its members don’t know how much it hurts when they just say yes to another coal mine.

I would invite Scott Morrison (Prime Minister) to come and see what life in Inverell is like. In case he chooses not to, I’ll paint this picture for the country and hope people can start to realise and understand the devastating impact climate change is having. I hope they will take a stand for the people, the places and the animals whose voices are too small for him to hear.

>>> Gundi Rhoades is a veterinarian, scientist, mother, beef cattle farmer and member of Veterinarians for Climate Action.

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See also: ‘The Darling River will die’: Scientists say mass fish kill due to over-extraction and drought | The Guardian, February 18, 2019

Gas well fire on Vernon Road, West Salem Twp., Mercer County, PA

From an Article by David Dye, Sharon Herald (Penna.), October 15, 2019

WEST SALEM TOWNSHIP — Firefighters from eight departments spent more than four hours Sunday battling a gas well fire in West Salem Township.

West Salem Township fire Chief Bill Brown said Mercer County 911 dispatched his department to the well, located in a field off Vernon Road in the township. The well, which produced natural gas and some crude oil, caught fire after the wellhead’s heater malfunctioned.

“The well was really rolling when our engine got there,” Brown said.

“There was a hazmat risk that the crude oil could flow out onto the ground, and there was concern that the fire may spread to the rest of the field or the oil could get into a nearby waterway,” he said.

Brown said a neighbor brought a bulldozer to help dig earthen dams around the well and contain the flammable material, while firefighters put down absorption pads to soak up water that may have mixed with oil.

Fortunately, West Salem Township firefighters was trained on dealing with gas well fires, and Brown said the firefighters’ first priority was keeping the wellhead cool and preventing any of pipes from rupturing.

“We have a number of wells in the township. We’ve had wells catch on fire from being struck by lightning, we’ve had cars that have struck them and ignited, and there’s a Marcellus Shale well that we monitor,” he said.

Once the wellhead was sufficiently cooled, the well tender and PA-DEP official were able to restrict the flow of gas, which extinguished the fire. As a precaution, firefighters went through the area with meters to make sure any flammable gas had dispersed, Brown said.

Though there were houses around the well, none of the residents were evacuated. One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion, but otherwise there were no injuries, Brown said.

Along with West Salem Township Volunteer Fire Department, departments from Greenville, Jamestown, South Pymatuning, Sheakleyville, Transfer, Hempfield and Burghill-Vernon in Trumbull County responded to battle the blaze. Life Force ambulance service also responded and Transfer fire police controlled traffic in the area, closing a portion of state Route 358.

Mercer County Emergency Management Agency also responded with its hazardous materials trailer. The gas well’s tender and an official from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas were at the scene, Brown said.

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See also: Small explosion at Hartford gas well fire prompted evacuation | WKBN.com, Trumbull County, OH, September 21, 2019

HARTFORD, Ohio (WKBN) – Families are now allowed in their houses after a gas well fire in Trumbull County on Friday. People living within a one-mile radius of a gas well were told to evacuate Friday evening. A portion of Ohio Route 7 was also closed because of the fire. The fire behind D&G Machinery on Route 7 has been put out and the gas well has been capped. The evacuation order has since been lifted.

Explosion sent flames 200 feet high seen for 15 miles

From an Article by Scott DiSavino, Reuters News Service, January 23, 2019

(Reuters) – U.S. natural gas output in the Marcellus and Utica shale in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia dropped by 7 percent on Wednesday, following an explosion on Enbridge Inc’s Texas Eastern (TETCO) pipeline on Monday.

The blast, which injured two people who lived nearby and damaged three homes, occurred on TETCO’s 30-inch (76.2 cm) line about two miles south of Summerfield in Noble County in southeast Ohio at around 10:40 a.m. EST, the Calgary-based company said in a statement.

Before the incident, drillers were producing about 30 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas in the Marcellus and Utica region. That dropped to just 28 bcfd on Wednesday, according to Refinitiv, a financial data provider.

One billion cubic feet is enough gas for about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.

At the time of the blast, gas was flowing through TETCO from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields south toward the Gulf of Mexico, according to gas traders.

The amount of gas moving through TETCO south of the damaged pipe in Athens and Scioto Counties in southern Ohio dropped from around 1.2 bcfd on Monday to less than 0.1 bcfd on Wednesday, according to Refinitiv data.

In Bath, Monroe and Boyle Counties in Kentucky, flows also fell from over 1.0 bcfd on Monday to about 0.1 bcfd Wednesday.

In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, flows in Greene County in the southwest corner of the state reversed direction from 0.6 bcfd moving West on Monday to 0.4 bcfd heading east on Wednesday. Greene County is one of Pennsylvania’s biggest gas producing counties.

Officials at Enbridge could not say when the damaged section of pipe would return to service. The Calgary-based company said it was working with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to identify the cause, monitor repairs and evaluate environmental impacts.

Enbridge said the damaged section of pipe was built in 1952-53 (65 years) and an inspection of the line was performed in 2012 (6 years) with no remediation needed.

The 9,029-mile (14,531-km) TETCO pipeline was designed to carry gas from the U.S. Gulf Coast and Texas to high-demand markets in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. It became bi-directional over the past five years, enabling it to also carry gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale, where production is growing rapidly, to markets in the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast.

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NOTE: We believe that 65 years is an excessive lifetime for a buried metal pipeline operating at high thru-put and high pressure. Further, safety inspections should take place every year for old pipelines, not to five or six or more years. Water lines are relatively safe but natural gas and LPG pipelines are explosive with fires resulting. DGN

House exploded in Greene County on Halloween! WHY?

From an Article by Anya Litvak, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, December 20, 2018

Each day since a house in Clarksville exploded on Halloween, a Peoples Natural Gas worker has visited the home’s hollowed shell to monitor for signs of leaking gas.

Some days it’s there at a “highly elevated level,” said Barry Kukovich, a spokesman for the North Side utility. Others it isn’t.

State regulators and several gas companies with wells and pipes in the area are still sorting through clues about whose gas leaked into that Greene County home before the explosion.

Many gas samples have been taken and analyzed and investigators for the state Public Utility Commission are preparing to excavate several areas around the site for still more sampling, according to PUC spokesman Nils Hagen-Frederiksen.

With a dense soup of coal and gas infrastructure in the area, the investigation can take months, Mr. Hagen-Frederiksen warned.

Beyond pinpointing the source of the gas — “the what” as he called it — the PUC also wants to know “the why.” “Is this an isolated thing or is this a symptom of a broader problem,” Mr. Hagen-Frederiksen said. “And if so, what is necessary to address that.”

Morgan Township in Greene County is a complicated laboratory.

Within a half-mile radius of the burned down house is a well pad with five horizontal Marcellus wells, four gas storage wells that plunge down to a storage field underlying the area, and three other old gas wells. In addition, two inactive coal mines meet below the property and at least three pipelines also fall within the half-mile ring.

Investigators are analyzing gas samples from these features to match their signature to the gas detected at the site of the explosion. But the fact that all this infrastructure is so close together could mean gas from one source gets mixed with gas from another, confounding the analysis.

For example, the gas that Peoples delivers to area homes is sourced from local Marcellus Shale wells, like the ones on EQT Corp.’s Hildebrand well pad across the street from the former home of Mike and Lora White.

Peoples shut off its distribution line to the home on the day of the accident, when Cody White turned on a stove burner and the house he shared with his parents, his girlfriend and their young son went up in flames. Mr. White, and his girlfriend and child were airlifted to a hospital burn unit. According to updates on Facebook fundraising sites, they were released shortly after and are all doing well.

Peoples said that its gas line has been shut off since the accident and that a pressure test of it the day after the blast revealed no leaks.

EQT is also doing an internal investigation, said spokeswoman Linda Robertson.

“Although we are still awaiting results of some of the tests, to date there has been no evidence to indicate the accident resulted from an issue with an EQT production well or pipeline,” she said, including the company’s gas storage field in that assessment.

The PA Department of Environmental Protection, which along with federal pipeline regulators and the fire marshall, is involved in the investigation, also found the nearby storage wells and associated pipelines to be in good shape, according to inspection reports done in early November.

Mr. Hagen-Frederiksen said that while the investigation may stretch on for a while — the last time the PUC investigated a house explosion, it took more than a year to memorialize its findings — the area of the explosion continues to be monitored daily to collect data and to protect public safety.

A log-cabin house near the blast site that was evacuated after high gas readings were detected there remains empty. It is also being surveyed daily.

SEE ALSO THE ORIGINAL STORY: Anya Litvak: Gas explosion levels a house in Greene County

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State Impact Pennsylvania —- Your Guide to Pipelines

https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/tag/pipelines/

MarkWest isolates Ethane, Propane and Butanes from “Wet” Natural Gas

From an Article by Pittsburgh Post Gazette, December 14, 2018

Four people remain hospitalized, one in critical condition, after an explosion at a Washington County gas processing plant Thursday night.

The explosion involved two storage tanks at the MarkWest Energy facility at 800 Western Ave., in Houston, Pa. It was reported at 6:03 p.m. and the fire brought under control within an hour, according to county emergency officials.

All of the injured workers suffered burns. Two were flown to UPMC Mercy, including one person who was in critical condition Friday morning, officials said. The other two injured were flown to West Penn Hospital.

Nine fire departments and three EMS crews responded, as did the county’s hazmat unit. No homes were evacuated.

A MarkWest official said in a statement that the explosion occurred “near two temporary tanks that were on-site for routine maintenance, resulting in a fire.”

“Although the processing plant was not involved in the incident, it was shut down as a precaution and at this time there are no off-site impacts,” the statement read. “Agency notifications have been made and an investigation into the cause of this event is underway. Our prayers are with our injured colleagues and their families.”

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From WTAE Action 4 News:

The Marathon Petroleum Corporation issued the following statement:

“At approximately 6 p.m. local time, the MarkWest processing plant in Houston, Pennsylvania, experienced an incident near two temporary tanks that were on-site for routine maintenance, resulting in a fire. There were injuries and four individuals have been transported to area hospitals. Local fire departments responded and the fire has been extinguished. The processing plant has been shut down as a precaution and at this time there were no off-site impacts. Agency notifications have been made and an investigation into the cause of this event is underway. Our prayers are with our injured colleagues and their families.”

A spokesperson for the PA Department of Environmental Protection told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 a team did respond to the site. Crews investigated and determined chemicals from the foam used by firefighters to put out the fire did not leak into any nearby water supply.

The PA-DEP said the company has until January 15 to submit a report detailing the incident.

Four workers & fireman injured in multiple explosions in Texas

Article from the News Staff, Reuters News Service, August 1, 2018

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A series of natural gas pipeline explosions in Midland County, Texas sent five people to hospital with critical burn injuries, and interrupted energy pipeline operations in the area, officials said.

The region is the home to the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield, and is crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines. The cause of the explosion and fire were not immediately known.

Five workers with critical injuries were airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, and were being treated at the center’s burn unit, said University Medical Center spokesman Eric Finley.

Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan said on Wednesday it had isolated a portion of its El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline (EPNG) as a precaution, after being alerted to the fire near its line. One of its employees was injured and taken to hospital, spokeswoman Sara Hughes said.

“There was a third-party pipeline involved that also experienced a failure, and preliminary indications are that the third-party line failure occurred before the EPNG line failure,” Kinder Morgan’s Hughes said in an email.

The company is investigating the cause of the fire and evaluating any damage to its property. Regulatory agencies and customers were notified of the incident, she added.

“Fire Department personnel suppressed the fire, however approximately one hour later a second and third small explosion followed,” said Elana Ladd, public information officer for the city of Midland, in emailed comments.

Multiple pipelines are located near the site, Ladd said, adding that first responders were focusing on shutting off pressure and flow to the pipelines at the site.

The pipeline explosion occurred on a rural road, FM 1379, about five miles south of Highway 158 at around 11:30 a.m. local time (1630 GMT), Ladd said, adding that the road had been closed. Ladd identified one of the injured as a firefighter.

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See also: Accident sends 20,000 gallons of drilling fluid into Maumee River tributary in Ohio, July 27, 2018

Residents alarmed by explosion & fire in rural area

From an Article by Scott McCloskey, Wheeling Intelligencer, July 24, 2018

Photo: Processing equipment located near a natural gas well site along Sorghum Ridge Road near Sherrard burns Monday morning after an explosion at the site.

SHERRARD — No injuries were reported when an explosion and fire occurred at a Marshall County natural gas well pad at mid-morning Monday.

Sorghum Ridge Road resident Dave Reinbeau had just finished his routine check on his livestock and fences and returned to his home when the explosion occurred within processing equipment at the well pad site.

Reinbeau said he actually saw and felt the initial blast which occurred near the middle of his Sorghum Ridge property after he had returned to his house on the nearby hillside. He said he saw a tanker truck exit the site just seconds before the explosion occurred.

“It felt like a force,” said Reinbeau, who went on to explain that he called 911 right away because he knew several workers were on the site. “I knew that those four guys were out there working. That’s all I could think about. I called 911,” Reinbeau said.

Marshall County Office of Emergency Management Director Tom Hart said while no injuries were reported with the blast at the Reinbeau well pad, one worker on the site was evaluated by EMS crews for being overheated. Hart said emergency crews responded to the blast and fire after the initial call came in shortly before 10 a.m.

“There were no injuries, no evacuations. It is under control at this point. They are just waiting for it to burn off so that they can start assessing,” Hart said shortly after responding to the site. “There were actually crews from Williams Energy on scene that were working at the site. The actual well pad is owned by Southwestern Energy.

“When the fire crews arrived on scene, they did experience heavy fire deployment. It was actually processing equipment that was on fire. It was not the well pad itself. There was an explosion prior to first responders arriving on scene, then after the fire departments did arrive, there was a secondary explosion as well,” he added.

Hart said officials decided to let the fire burn itself out. “What they are trying to do is they’re keeping some of the condensate tanks and other equipment cooled down while they let the fire burn off at this point,” Hart explained.

Volunteer fire departments hauled water from a hydrant on W.Va. 88 to the scene of the fire. Hart said the fire was out by 12:36 p.m. Emergency crews cleared the scene at 2 p.m.

Southwestern Energy spokeswoman Christina Fowler said there were no injuries reported. She said they were aware of the problem and it was resolved.

Several of the neighbors living along the ridge called or stopped to check on each other after the blasts. At least one Sherrard resident living nearly a half-mile away reported hearing and feeling the blast inside her house.

Reinbeau said he went to a neighbor’s house located a short distance away because he didn’t know if there was anything “toxic” in the air from the ongoing fire.

“I stayed over there until I found out it wasn’t harmful,” he said. Reinbeau said he checked on dozens of his farm animals following the blast and they all appeared to be fine.

Fire crews from Mount Olivet, Limestone, Sherrard, Glen Dale and Bethlehem volunteer fire departments and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office responded. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection also responded to evaluate the scene.

Leach Xpress 30 inch Pipeline explodes in WV

From an Article by Chris Lawrence in WV Metro News, June 07, 2018

Photo: Flames shoot hundreds of feet into the air until gas service was cut off following explosion Thursday morning

MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. — The cause of a gas line explosion in Marshall County from early Thursday morning remained under investigation hours after the ensuing fire was out. Investigators from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Trans-Canada remained on the scene Thursday.

The blast happened along Trans-Canada’s Midstream Pipeline around 4 a.m. Thursday. The fire cast a glow hundreds of feet into the air which was seen and heard for miles. When the sun rose, the immediate area of the explosion and fire revealed the results of the intense heat from the blaze.

“There were calls going into Ohio County, Wetzel County and across the river in Belmont and Monroe County, Ohio and also into Greene and Washington Counties in Pennsylvania,” said Marshall County Emergency Services Director Tom Hart. “It could be heard and seen for miles and a lot of people could actually feel the roar and said it was like an airplane going over their house.”

Fortunately, the explosion happened in a rural area where there were no homes or other structures. Although there were a few people in the vicinity of the blast, nobody was hurt. According to Hart, the line hadn’t been in service very long.

“There are parts of it that were still under construction,” said Hart. “It was a fairly new line and it was a 36 inch line.”

TransCanada was able to shut down the pressure on the line remotely which allowed the fire to burn out. Firefighters surrounded and secured the area, but since it was in a remote location and posed no threat to property or people, Hart said they simply stood back until the subsequent fire burned off.

“We were very fortunate there were no injuries involved in this incident and it was in a rural location and not in a heavily populated area in Marshall County,” Hart said.

TransCanada released the following statement Thursday afternoon:

At approximately 4:15 a.m. Eastern Time on June 7, 2018 there was a natural gas pipeline rupture on TransCanada’s Columbia Gas Transmission System on Nixon Ridge in Marshall County, West Virginia.

As soon as the issue was identified, emergency response procedures were enacted and the segment of impacted pipeline was isolated shortly after. The fire was fully extinguished by approximately 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. There were no injuries involved with this incident.

The cause of this issue is not yet known. The site of the incident has been secured and we are beginning the process of working with applicable regulators to investigate, including the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Ten acres burned over in northern panhandle

Geismar Olefins Plant Explosion & Fire, Louisiana, 2013

From an Article by Terry L. Jones, The Advocate, September 26, 2016

PLAQUEMINE — Four men injured in the 2013 explosion at the Williams Olefins Geismar plant were awarded a total of $13.6 million in damages after an Iberville Parish jury late Monday night ruled the company, several plant officials and its parent company were negligent and knew with substantial certainty that the deadly fire could occur.

The jury rendered its verdict after five hours of deliberation in the three-week trial in the first of several lawsuits related to the incident that killed two people and injured 114 workers.

“For a month they were trying to shift blame onto their shell company (Williams Olefins) and I’m glad the jury saw right through it,” Kurt Arnold, attorney for the plaintiffs, said after Monday night’s verdict.

The jury found that Williams’ Oklahoma-based parent company was 95 percent responsible for the explosion and Williams Olefins was 3 percent to blame. The jury apportioned 1 percent of the blame on plant official Parker Tucker and 1 percent for plant supervisor Larry Bayer, who were also named defendants in the lawsuit. The jury absolved defendant Erick Comeaux, a plant official.

Plaintiff Shawn Thomas will receive the highest payout in damages, awarded $9.4 million for past and future medical bills, lost wages and mental anguish, and pain and suffering. Kris Devall was awarded $3.6 million and Eduardo Elizondo and Michael Dantone were awarded $360,000 and $205,000, respectively.

The company, in a written statement issued after the verdict, says it plans to appeal: “Nothing about the tragic accident at the Williams Olefins facility in Geismar on June 13, 2013 was intentional. We believe there is sufficient Louisiana case law that supports our legal position, and we will appeal the jury verdict rendered in the 18th Judicial District Court.”

In their closing arguments, attorneys for the four men asserted Williams Olefins administrative leaders and plant managers had some idea an explosion could occur, ignoring for seven years warnings that could have prevented the tragedy at the facility, which straddles the Ascension-Iberville line.

“This accident doesn’t happen if the board of directors and CEOs heeded the warnings they were told,” Arnold told the jurors.

But the jury was asked by defense attorneys to view the decisions and actions of the company and its plant officials as a mistake they never intended to happen. “This case is not about responsibility. Williams Olefins already accepted responsibility,” defense attorney Glenn Farnet said. “It was a horrible mistake. Human beings make mistakes. Mistakes are not intent.”

Farnet asserted that in order for the plaintiffs to argue intent Williams’ officials would have had to have known three sequential factors would occur on the day of the explosion. “The scenario that happened that morning had never happened in 13 years because it was an unusual scenario,” he said.

The plaintiffs contended that Williams, key management figures and others had known for years that one of two reboilers used in the refinery process was isolated from pressure relief — which meant there was a risk of over-pressurization and explosion.

Both sides admitted in the court the explosion could have been prevented if car seals, costing less than $5, were tied onto the rebroiler valves. But defense attorneys claimed corporate officials were under the assumption the safety measures had been followed based on what they were told by plant managers.

Much of the debate during the three-week trial centered on the whether Williams’ Oklahoma-based corporate headquarters should bear much of the responsibility for the explosion since its administrative leaders must sign off on many of the day-to-day decisions made at the Geismar facility by the plant managers who work for its limited liability company, Williams Olefins.

“Williams Olefins stood up here and took the blame, but that wasn’t enough,” said Jim Reed, the attorney representing two of the parent companies named in the lawsuit. “Sometimes the truth is very simple. Lawyers complicate things.”

Arnold, the plaintiffs attorney, asserted in court Monday that Williams should bear 90 percent of the responsibility for the plant explosion and Williams Olefins should take 4 percent of the blame. The remaining liability should be apportioned among the remaining defendants, he said.

Arnold asked the jury to award Thomas and Devall $12.1 million each to cover past and future medical bills, lost wages and mental and physical suffering since the explosion.

Arnold asked that Elizondo and Dantone get at least $1.6 million and $835,364, respectively, for past and future medical expenses and lost wages. He left it to the jury to determine what additional money, if any, the two men should receive for past and future mental anguish and pain and suffering.

But Randy Cangelosi, one of several attorneys arguing on behalf of Williams, said some of the plaintiffs exaggerated their injuries while others had pre-existing conditions or weren’t injured severely enough to prevent them from getting high-paying jobs in the future.

“This case is about what’s fair and reasonable. It’s not about punishing any company,” he told the jury.

Cangelosi said Dantone should receive between $65,000 to $80,000 in damages, Elizondo somewhere in the range of $65,000 to $80,000, Thomas between $1.4 million to $1.7 million and Devall’s payout should fall somewhere between $400,000 to $925,000.

Tony Clayton, another attorney for plaintiffs, told the jurors that Williams should not be allowed to injure its employees and then turn around and determine how much money the workers should receive for their injuries.

“Your verdict will be a historical marker of how (these plants) conduct themselves in the future,” Clayton said in his closing arguments. “If they’re man enough to come here and make profits off of us, then they need to be man enough to pay for their substantial mistakes.”

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Accident Description and Safety Investigation:

Accident: Williams Olefins Plant Explosion and Fire
Location: Geismar, LA
Accident Occured: 06/13/2013 | Final Report Released: 10/19/2016
Accident Type: Chemical Manufacturing – Fire and Explosion
Investigation Status: The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigation was released at a news conference in Baton Rouge, LA, on 10.19.2016
The fire and explosion occurred on Thursday June 13, 2013, which fatally injured two workers and injured 114 at the William Olefins, Inc., plant located in Geismar, Louisiana.

FINAL REPORT OF C.S.B., CASE NUMBER No. 2013-03-I-LA
https://www.csb.gov/file.aspx?DocumentId=6004