A Transocean, Ltd. Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded sending a fireball into the night Tuesday injuring 17 workers, four critically, who were airlifted to hospitals for treatment of burns, broken bones and smoke inhalation. As of Wednesday morning, 11 workers were still missing adding to the anguish of worried relatives. The missing have not been identified pending notification to their families.
The rig is located 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. The suspected blowout could end up being the deadliest offshore drilling accident in the past fifty years. Nearly 100 of the Horizon workers made it aboard a supply vessel which brought them to shore. Hopefully the 11 missing workers escaped in lifeboats. Coast Guard search boats and aircraft continue to try to locate them. The explosion gave no time for workers to evacuate. Prior to the explosion, crews were doing routine work with no apparent signs of trouble according to company officials.
The rig is tilting as much as 10 degrees following the blast as fireboat crews work to contain the ongoing flames which caused a huge plume of black smoke to rise hundreds of feet into the air. Authorities are unable to say when the fire can be extinguished so investigative teams can determine what actually went wrong and assess damage to the environment.
Working in the offshore oil industry is dangerous. Since 2001 there have been 858 fires and explosions in the Gulf causing 69 deaths and 1,300 injuries. Many modern rigs use various preventative measures against blowouts including use of gas detector alarms, weighing down natural gas to prevent it from rising up into the well, and anti-sparking machinery.
The focus, as it should be, is currently on locating the missing and treating the injured. Godspeed to the victims and the rescuers alike.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
