Greka Energy: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Apr 18, 2002 (fatal): Fatality occurs due to explosion

At approximately 11:12 a.m. on April 18, 2002, three workers were replacing a le aking 2-inch casing gate valve. At the wellhead, there were about 25 vehicles th at were parked near the well. The vehicles belonged to harvest workers that were conducting strawberry harvesting northeast of the wellhead. One vehicle was par ked at the wellhead and the others were parked along a windscreen fence that was 15 feet to 20 feet southeast of the wellhead. One of the workers backed a vacuu m truck up to the wellhead and connected a 3-inch bleed down line to the casing gate valve to relieve gas pressure (blowdown) in the wellhead. The process vents the gas through the truck, removing any hydrogen sulfide that may have been pre sent, and discharges it through a bleeder valve. The blowdown operation lasted a pproximately one hour, at which point the farm laborers began exiting the field towards their vehicles. One of the workers closed a 2-inch casing gate valve but did not close the bleeder valve on the bottom of the truck. Therefore, the gas stream continued to be vented from the bottom of the truck. The laborers started their cars and left the area, with the exception of one car that was north of t he wellhead and had two occupants inside. Employee #2 was the driver of the vehi cle and was not too familiar or comfortable with its controls. Due to the car's close proximity to the well, one of the workers instructed Employees #1 and #2, in both English and Spanish, not to drive forward into the gas cloud. Employee # 2 expressed that she did not know how to operate the vehicle in reverse and Empl oyee #1 switched seats with her. Employee #1 needed to move the car forward in o rder to maneuver around a vehicle parked behind him. The vehicle entered the gas cloud and an explosion occurred. One of the workers immediately shut the bleede r valve at the bottom of the truck and emergency services were contacted. A crew of firefighter paramedics responded within 10 minutes. Both Employees #1 and #2 were hospitalized at Marian Medical Center and treated. Employee #1 suffered mi nor injuries, while Employee #2 experienced second-degree burns to her face and arms. She later died. During an investigation, it was determined that the gas st ream was not tested for the Lower Explosive Limit or hydrogen sulfide prior to t he blowdown operation, but air monitoring was conducted at the beginning of the operation with no hydrogen sulfide detected. Additionally, there were 30 barrels of water on the vacuum truck.