Five individuals have sustained serious injuries following an oil rig fire in La Salle County. The victims were employed at Pioneer Natural Resources and were working on one of the company’s work-over rigs in Tilden at the time of the accident.
According to officials from Pioneer Natural Resources, when the fire broke out, other members of the crew were able to contain the fire and alert emergency workers. An emergency response team put the fire out and transported the injured workers to a local hospital for treatment. There is no word on the condition of the five workers, but investigators are still trying to determine what caused the work accident.
Pioneer Natural Resources is no stranger to industrial accidents. In 2008, the company was fined $7,000 for another fire that claimed the life of an employee. The 2008 fire occurred at one of the company’s west Texas facilities.
Oil production is naturally a risky line of work, but when companies fail to put the proper safeguards in place to protect employees, oil rigs can become extremely dangerous and deadly work environments. From gas leaks to defective rigs, on-the-job injuries in oil production occur for a variety of reasons, but most of these accidents are preventable. When these accidents do occur, workers have the right to pursue the maximum benefits their injuries warrant with a workers’ compensation claim.
An attorney who has experience with industrial workers’ accidents could help workers file the necessary documentation within a timely fashion. If a non-employer third party is believed to have contributed to the injury, an individual may be able to pursue a civil claim against them.
Source: FOX San Antonio, “Five workers injured in oil rig fire”, October 25, 2014