DEER PARK, Texas – The attorney representing several contractors who were injured during a deadly gas release at the PEMEX facility in Deer Park last week alleges the facility’s alarm system which is supposed to warn of toxic chemical releases failed to go off until it was too late.
Attorney Ryan Zehl of the Zehl & Associates Law Firm says he represents four contractors who were at the site when the deadly release happened last Thursday. The hydrogen sulfide release led to the deaths of two people and 13 others had to be hospitalized.
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Zehl says his clients experienced breathing problems, nausea, vomiting, eye problems, headaches, as well as orthopedic injuries sustained as workers rushed to escape the facility.
“They either fell, ran against something and hurt their necks, backs and other parts of their body,” Zehl said.
Zehl said his clients have told him this experience has changed their outlook on working at plants.
“These people, a lot of them have worked in plants and refineries for many, many years. And this incident has changed their entire outlook on their occupation. And they specifically do not want to go back and work at the next plant,” Zehl said.
Zehl’s clients have told him they were close to the sulfur recovery unit where the leak originated from and the smell and odor was bad enough that many felt they were going to pass out. They also told Zehl repeatedly the alarms didn’t work as they should have.
“That’s what I’ve heard over and over again, is that the alarms activated when it was already too late, when it was hours after the sulfur had began, excuse me, hours after the hydrogen sulfide had started to release. And we’re talking about almost 1,000 times the legal limit of hydrogen sulfide being released. They were releasing some, they say, over the course of seven hours, 43,500 pounds, and that’s about over 6,000 pounds per hour when the legal limit is 6.8 pounds per hour. And so the fact that more people weren’t fatally injured is truly a miracle, particularly when this alarm system didn’t serve its purpose and notify,” Zehl said.
Some of the workers did have personal alarms that did go off, which Zehl believes did save lives.
“Had it not been for the personal monitors, I think this would have been a much worse situation. Fortunately, some of those workers, contractors did have personal monitors. The alarm started to go off. People started to realize that smell is hydrogen sulfide. Put the two and two together and started to get out of it. And I think there was a mass exodus and people got hurt trying to get out of the facility as well,” he said.
Zehl spoke about what he is told happened that caused the deadly release.
“All we know so far is that a flange that shouldn’t have been opened, opened and released, started to release this hydrogen sulfide,” he said. “What we don’t know is whether that flange was opened intentionally or inadvertently. Nonetheless, you have an alarm system that is specifically designed to detect this type of poisonous gas. Why it didn’t go off, I don’t know why the company didn’t notify people earlier,” he said.
Another lawsuit has already been filed on behalf of three other workers by attorney Mo Aziz.
Other lawsuits are likely.