Oil rig, refinery & industrial explosions
Production never outranks protection.
Rigs, refineries, and plants run on process-safety systems designed to keep hydrocarbons and people apart. Explosions happen when those systems become paperwork — maintenance deferred, alarms silenced, interlocks bypassed, hot-work permits signed without walking the unit — because shutting down costs money and the schedule always wins.
The system behind the blast.
Process-safety management is not a suggestion; it is a written discipline — hazard analyses, mechanical-integrity programs, management-of-change reviews, permit-to-work systems.
Catastrophic failures leave a paper trail measured in years: the deferred-maintenance backlog, the audit findings marked “will address,” the contractor pushed to finish early, the near-misses filed and forgotten. We know how to read that record, and how to make a jury see the years of choices packed inside a single moment of ignition.
Working backward
Questions we investigate.
- 01What maintenance was deferred, for how long — and who approved each deferral?
- 02What did the last process-hazard analysis and audits flag, and what happened to the findings?
- 03Who was trained for the task — and who was merely badged for it?
- 04What did the schedule, staffing, and bonus structure look like in the weeks before?
- 05What did the company's own permits, procedures, and standards require on that unit, that day?
Cases like these, before.
- $64,000,000 resolution for burn injuries sustained on a drilling rig.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome; every case depends on its own facts and law.
Two ways to bring us a case.
For attorneys
Association, referral, or trial-team support on a catastrophic case.
For families
If you have lost someone, or someone you love will never be the same, talk with us. No cost, no obligation, and no pressure to decide anything today.