Undefeated Refinery Explosion Lawyers
On the morning of March 23, 2005, the BP Texas City Refinery was coming back online after routine maintenance. As contractors moved between units and equipment began cycling up, nothing had occurred that morning to suggest that particular Wednesday would be anything other than a typical, routine workday.
Then, shortly after 1 p.m., the unthinkable happened. The first of a series of powerful explosions tore through the refinery. Strong enough to register as an earthquake, the blast shattered windows miles away and sent a towering plume of smoke into the Texas City sky.
Fifteen contract workers died instantly, and 180 were injured, many with severe burns. As emergency responders rushed into a scene of fire and debris, families across the region began the long, anxious wait for news, worried that their loved one would never return from their shift.
Our Texas Refinery Explosion Lawyers are proud to have recovered over $250 million in combined damages on behalf of more than 100 workers seriously injured in the BP Texas City disaster. But more importantly, our efforts gave these injured workers a voice, allowing them to achieve some semblance of justice for the many failures that made such a horrific disaster possible.
How the BP Texas City Refinery Explosion Unfolded
What exactly triggered the BP Texas City Refinery explosion?
The tragedy began in the facility’s isomerization unit, where the raffinate splitter was being restarted after the month-long shutdown. Unknown to the crew handling the operation, the splitter was overfilling and overheating. Instead of being safely routed to a closed relief system, the excess material flowed into a blowdown drum and vented from a stack into the open air. A single spark from an idling vehicle was enough to ignite the cloud, triggering a massive explosion that radiated outward from the unit, engulfing anything and anyone in its path.
“He turned around and looked and saw water or whatever it was coming out. He knew he was in trouble,” the aunt of one injured survivor would later tell the New York Times.
“It was no more than five seconds before it blew. It blew his clothes off him. Everything but his underwear and his boots.”
Root Causes: A Disaster Long In the Making
Investigators from then U.S. Chemical Safety Board were unequivocal: the BP Texas City explosion was not the result of a single bad decision or a mistake made on the day of the incident. Rather, it was the culmination of a series of systemic failures—all entirely avoidable— that had developed and compounded over many years.
Outdated Equipment and a Known Hazard
At the center of the explosion was equipment that shouldn’t have even been in service. The raffinate splitter relied on an atmospheric blowdown drum and stack that, by 2005, was widely recognized as hazardous. In fact, closed relief systems that routed releases to containment were already standard at many other refineries. But at BP Texas City, there was nothing to contain the hydrocarbons that escaped the splitter that morning.
Instrument Failures During a High-Stakes Startup
To make matters worse, the instruments meant to monitor conditions inside the splitter malfunctioned, providing unclear or inaccurate readings. That meant the crew tasked with restarting the unit was basically working blind during a particularly hazardous operation.
A Culture that Tolerated Risk
CSB investigators also documented a long history of deferred maintenance and postponed safety upgrades at the refinery. Internal audits, reviews, and previous incident investigations had identified significant process safety deficiencies long before 2005, including hazards directly associated with startup operations and equipment reliability. While those findings were documented and acknowledged, management consistently failed to act. Budget concerns and production demands created a culture that tolerated risk.
A Lethal Decision on Trailer Placement
The use of temporary trailers during refinery turnarounds is common; they keep support personnel near active units, enhancing efficiency and communication. But at BP Texas City, trailers were placed near the isomerization unit, within an area investigators later identified as a potential blast zone. Because management treated trailer placement as a logistical concern rather than a critical process-safety issue, they failed to conduct an adequate hazard analysis.
The trailers themselves were lightweight and not designed to withstand explosion overpressure, fire, or flying debris. When the vapor cloud ignited, the tailers near the raffinate splitter absorbed the full impact of the blast and were destroyed almost instantly. Workers inside had no warning and no meaningful opportunity to escape. All 15 fatalities occurred in or near those structures.
The Human Cost of the BP Texas City Tragedy
In addition to the 15 fatalities, the BP Texas City explosion also injured more than 170 workers, many of them seriously. Some of the worst consequences of the blast included:
- Burn Injuries: When the vapor cloud ignited, workers in and around the process area were exposed to intense heat. Some suffered direct thermal burns from the fireball itself, while others were burned as secondary fires spread through the unit and surrounding structures.
- Blast-Related and Impact Injuries: Many injured workers suffered blunt-force trauma after being thrown by the blast or struck by objects propelled by the explosion.
- Head Injuries: Some workers were struck by debris or hit their heads when structures collapsed, while several suffered concussions and other traumatic brain injuries from blast overpressure.
- Orthopedic and Crush Injuries: As trailer walls, roofs, and equipment collapsed, workers were trapped or crushed, with many suffering broken bones, crushed limbs, and spinal injuries.
What Changed — and What Still Hasn’t — Since the BP Texas City Explosion
In the wake of the BP Texas City explosion, the American Petroleum Institute adopted new standards to address some of the practices that contributed to the disaster.
- Trailer siting and portable buildings: Lightweight trailers are no longer considered appropriate in hazardous process areas, and facilities are expected to conduct safety analyses before housing workers near active units.
- Worker fatigue and work hours: To reduce the risk of fatigue-related errors when crews perform complex and hazardous tasks, new standards were adopted to limit work hours and consecutive days worked, particularly during high-risk periods.
- Atmospheric discharge systems: Their use was discouraged, and refineries were pushed toward safer alternatives, such as closed relief and flare systems designed to contain releases rather than vent them into the open air.
- Process safety indicators: New standards were introduced to track indicators tied directly to process safety, such as equipment failures and loss-of-containment events.
Unfortunately,other issues identified by the CSB in the aftermath of the disaster remain unchanged or underaddressed more than two decades later:
- Safety culture and priorities: In many refineries, output targets and scheduling pressures continue to drive decision-making, even when workers raise concerns about unsafe conditions. When profits and safety come into conflict, safety too often gives way.
- Inspection and enforcement: Safety enforcement remains inadequate. Inspections are infrequent, comprehensive reviews are rare, and known hazards often remain unaddressed for years.
- Contract worker training and preparedness: Contractors continue to perform high-risk work during turnarounds and restarts, often with less training and fewer protections than permanent staff.
- Operational Strains: At many refineries, aging equipment remains in service longer than it should, maintenance budgets are inadequate, and workers are expected to do more with less.
Undefeated Refinery Accident Lawyers: Call 1-888-603-3636 For a Free Consult
Our Undefeated Refinery Explosion Lawyers have won billions for thousands of clients throughout Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and the United States, including record-breaking verdicts and settlements in connection with some of the worst industrial disasters in recent history:
- #1 Largest Burn Injury Settlement in History
- $100 Million settlement for workers injured in a refinery explosion
- $75 Million Settlement for workers injured in refinery explosion
- $85 Million Settlement for injured refinery contractors.
If you or someone you love were hurt in a refinery explosion or other industrial accident, our attorneys can help. Call 1-888-603-3636, use the “chat” button on our homepage, or click here to send us a confidential email through our “Contact Us” form.
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