Liberty's Blog

Another BP Texas City Refinery Casualty

A couple of days ago The Texas City Firefighter union had some pictures from an unknown source of the Texas City Refinery on their web site. These photographs showed some of the damage and recovery efforts by the firefighters. The Photographs were on a slideshow format so I dodn't copy and past them. They hare gone now. The images while interesting, with closeups of some of the damages, weren't particularly revealing. The most revealing photographs were the close up aerials. These displayed the vehicles and portable buildings that received so much damage. There has been very litle information comming from BP. They don't want us, the affected familys and the lawyers to have any more information. Its cover their ass time. Information has eaked out as they have given it to authoritys, and investigators. Some information has been forthcoming by witnesses. Very little from BP management itself.

The photographs posted by the Texas City firefighters. Apperently were taken by a firefighter from neghboring mutual aid partner Marathon Oil. Marathons Fire Chief Greg Tonnies, took the heat for the photography. As a result he was relieved of duties for the infringement of someone (Possibly himself) taking those photographs.

The fire chief of a neighboring
refinery has resigned after photos from the site of the BP plant
explosion taken when he was there to help the day after the
disaster surfaced on the Internet.
Greg Tonnies, fire chief at Marathon-Ashland's Texas City
refinery and chief of the League City Volunteer Fire Department,
said the resignation was a mutual decision.
A series of photos taken March 24, a day after the explosion
that killed 15 and injured 100, had been on the Internet since last
week, including the Web site of the Texas City firefighters union.
Marathon Oil spokesman Paul Weeditz said the photographs were
taken by a Marathon-Ashland Texas City employee who was "no longer
employed at the refinery."
"Those photographs were entirely unauthorized and
Marathon-Ashland does not condone the activity or behavior of that
individual," Weeditz said. "We are a member of the mutual aid
organization, and our representatives were there to provide
assistance. Our purpose was not to take photographs."
The photos show BP and Marathon crews sifting through rubble as
part of the search and rescue mission. Marathon, like most other
local petrochemical companies, participates in the Texas City
industrial Mutual Aid System, in which industry fire crews assist
each other during emergencies such as the BP explosion.
Neither Tonnies nor Weeditz would say whether Tonnies took the
photos.

I know Greg, he served as my captain while I served on the League City Fire Department, and I know him well enough that he loved his job. Its really a shame that he had to take the hit for BP covering its ass. The public has a right to know what happened there, but he paid the price.

Here is what we know and can surmise from the information so far.

• There was a high presure vapor release, that vented into the atmosphere,instead of the more traditional flare.
• There haven't been any reports of an alarm going off between the release of the vapors and the initial explosion. There are indications that there were a few minutes between the events. Either the operators were unaware of the release, or they neglected to sound an evecution alarm for the unit.
• It apears that there was no hydrocarbon vapor detection equipment available.
• People were working in the unit while it was being started up. Starting a unit up is a dangerous time. Having contractors in the unit during a start-up is reckless.
• The contractor's portable builings were were very close to the unit, this just isn't done in most places. Too many people were exposed needlessly.
• Apparently a diesel engine in a pickup truck started racing. This is the potential source of ignitition. Why was the engine idling? Was the truck abandoned while idling?

Typically most disastors ae the results of a chain of conditions and events. Many things contribute to the disastor, and the correction of any one of the things could have prevented it. The Marathon photos weren't what got people killed and hurt. They were what told us about the damage.

posted by Liberty @ 6:30 AM