Workers Commemorate Anniversary of Deadly BP Refinery Explosion in Texas City

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the BP refinery explosion in Texas City that killed 15 workers and left more than 180 workers injured. Obviously, it's an extremely poignant moment not just for the families of those who were killed and those injured, but also for those of us who represented the victims as Houston refinery explosion lawyers in the litigation that followed.

At approximately 1:10 PM on March 23, 2009, dangerous flammable materials were ignited at the refinery. Investigations later revealed that alarm systems that should have warned workers of the deadly overflow, failed to function. The blast was powerful enough to rock houses up to 5 miles away from the refinery.

Soon after the explosion, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped BP with a $21 million fine. That wasn't the last time the agency admonished the company for its devastating failures. In 2009, the company was slapped with another fine for $87.4 million, for failure to correct potential safety hazards at the refinery. At the time, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said that BP had failed to live up to its promise of making improvements at the Texas City refinery.

One of the best outcomes of the explosion has been the millions of dollars donated to charitable organizations, hospitals and educational centers as part of the settlement. Thanks to those endowments, Texas A&M University is researching fire suppression technologies. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, which took in a large number of injured workers after the explosion, has developed new medications, and has undertaken the training of 30 doctors around the world on trauma care.

The Houston refinery explosion lawyers at Schechter McElwee Shaffer & Harris represent victims of oil refinery explosions around the state of Texas.