Petrolite Explosion, June 18, 1990

It was the beginning of another work week as I got around that Monday afternoon to go to work on the evening shift at Petrolite. June 18, 1990 was a warm and humid day. I can remember this day cause of the events that would soon develop over the next 5 hours. Upon arriving at the gate to clock in, some of the usual guys working the evening shift  that got there early would sit around and talk before going off to their departments. I sat down with one of the guys from the EP Plant, Rusty McLaughlin. Today was not a usual day at the EP Plant according to Rusty. The EP Plant would be making one of the new products that they had recently developed. Everyone referred to it as alcohol wax. It wasn't an ordinary synthetic wax as all the other waxes were and it was made in a different way. A way that Rusty and all the other guys that worked at the EP Plant didn't think was safe. Rusty was always nervous about the process of making alcohol wax as he pointed out to me many times.  After about five minutes of talking, it was time to clock in and go to work. As we were all leaving out the door, I overhead someone say, "Don't blow anything up tonight". Of course, this was all just joking around. Little did we realize that within hours that small verbal quote would  come back with a vengeance.

Petrolite's EP Plant.

The packaging department was working a two man crew that evening. Darrell Infield and myself were finishing up a run of 185 Amber at the Prill Tower that evening. We would later clean the tower to begin a run of C-4040. It was around 6:00 pm that my brother James "Wimp" Patrick was called out  to go to the EP Plant to check on an oxygen leak that was reported on the second deck reactor room of the EP Plant. At the time he showed up at the EP office, he was asked to wait till the batch of alcohol wax was emptied from one of the reactors. With a little time on his hands, he dropped by the Prill Tower to talk with me a bit before going over to the gate to grab a candy bar from the vending machine before returning to the EP Plant. I began to start my run of C-4040 and was in the process of going to the shakerboard room on the second level  of the tower. I had stopped for a moment to look east over the tanks where I would see my brothers truck still at the gate. He was most likely talking with Lloyd Swift since he was the evening supervisor. I had made it three steps into the shakerboard room when I heard a small and then a large explosion which shook the building like an earthquake. At first I thought it was a fork lift that had run into one of the support beams on the tower but that didn't make sense since all the main beam supports were in places a fork lift couldn't reach. I continued into the room to check on the progress of the start up. It must have been about 20 seconds later Darrell had ran up the two flights of stairs to the shakerboard room. As he opened the door he yelled at me from the doorway, "Jerry, the EP Plant just blew up"! I ran to the door to look back to the southeast to see what was happening. When I got to the doorway, the plant emergency whistle was beginning to blow. I was looking at a billowing cloud of black smoke and small bits of debris still floating around as it fell to the ground.

As we hurried down the stairs, I quickly began a shut down process by cutting off the product feed to the prill heads. Making my way to the loading dock I met up with Darrell, he had grabbed a mobile radio from the break room trying to hear any information coming out of the EP Plant. He was looking southeast towards the EP Plant trying to catch a sign of any movement. As the black smoke would clear momentarily we could see the extent of the damage. Small fires were all over the second floor of the reactor room. The north wall, northwest wall and the roof in that section of the building had been blown away. We had no idea of where they were in the process of the run so we didn't know if anyone was up stairs when the explosion occurred.Moments later a voice came across the radio calling for an ambulance and a man was down at the EP Plant. Emergency vehicles from the plant began making there way to the EP Plant. Water monitors were soon spraying water over the building. Darrell and myself were taking count of everyone that might have been there at the time of the explosion. David Moles, Ron Patrick, Rusty McLaughlin and Jim Lewis  all came to mind. We concluded it must be one of the four that had been injured. With further thought we deduced it was either Ron or Rusty since they would be the ones in the area at the time. It was later we found out that Rusty was on the second level when the explosion occurred.

Rusty McLaughlin
1976 Senior Photo

By Wednesday an investigation was underway by the St. Louis  office. They wanted to question everyone at the plant that was there during the explosion. My turn took maybe 15 minutes to answer all the questions but they were stuck on one question. How many explosions did you hear initially, one or two? I heard two explosions, a small one and then a larger one immediately after the first.
As hard as they tried to tell me there was only one explosion, I kept replying there were two. It was as if they wanted me to agree with them about the one explosion. I found out later I wasn't the only one interviewed that got that question and all of us agreed on the same thing...there were two explosions.They were also interested in the safety aspect of the product production. One of their questions centered around how safe did I think the process was. My reply was that the department manager wanted quantity over quality and safety and he pushed the issue with all shifts to produce a higher quantity of product. It was my opinion that the whole process was unsafe because of the push to attain a higher yield of product over any maintenance or safety issues.

By the end of the week, Bill Nasser CEO of the Petrolite Corporation was at the Barnsdall facility to have a meeting with all the employees about the explosion. It was at this meeting that most of the hourly employees lost respect for the CEO of the company. It was during this meeting he pulls out a bag and begins eating a sandwich and sipping on a drink. I, like many others thought it was an inappropriate gesture on his part to eat in a meeting that was very serious to us. It gave us an impression he was not sincere with all he was telling us.

The official cause of the explosion given to us was that the explosion occurred when rust particles entered into a closed line going to the reactor and when the line was opened into the reactor the rust activated an explosion inside the reactor causing it to explode. Like most of us that were there that evening, their findings didn't coincide with the information we gave them at the inquiry. There was no mention of the first small explosion that took place or the push to override any safety concerns on the production. In my mind they overlooked all the information they were given and gave us their interpretation of events.

Do I think there was a cover up of events that led to the explosion? Yes I do, just like everyone else that was there that evening. First of all, there was an oxygen leak located 10 feet from the reactor. An instrument man was called out to repair the leak which had been leaking for hours. They placed production over safety when they decided to run the batch through to the end of the run.

I believe the second level of the EP plant was saturated with pure oxygen from the leak. I feel the explosion began as one of the automatic valves opened, creating a spark which ignited the oxygen in the building causing the first small explosion. As this explosion took place it may have ruptured one of the lines leading into the reactor which when exposed to the open elements reacted with a second explosion that was more powerful than the first. This is what I think really happened.

Rusty McLaughlin was sitting in a chair on the second level when the explosion took place. He was situated around 50 feet from the reactor that exploded and only a couple feet from the main stairway that led into the reactor room. After the explosion, Rusty was able to descend the stairway to an exit that led him out to the east side of the building. He was found by his fellow employees at the EP Plant. All of his clothes had been burned off. The only clothing he had on was a part of his shirt, his leather belt with some bits of clothing attached to it and his leather boots. Most of his hair had been burned off from the flash fire that took place. Later, skin was found on the stairway hand rails that led to the reactor room. Rusty had been grabbing the rail on his way out of the building. When the ambulance arrived, Rusty was conscious and speaking. The remainder of his clothes were cut away and he was transported to the Tulsa burn center at Hillcrest hospital. Rusty died from the burns he received in the explosion.

When I left the plant in 2009, the clothes Rusty had been wearing that evening when he was caught in the explosion are still on site. They were placed in a plastic bag and stored in a cabinet and kept as a reminder of how a day at work can turn tragic in an instant. I don't know if the clothing is still on site but all of us that knew Rusty had a high regard for him. He was always one to help you in any situation and always had something good to say in any situation. He was, and is still missed, by those that knew him. An upright guy just trying to support his family. Too bad his life was cut short  from an incident that might have been avoided.