One Killed, One Hurt in Arco Refinery Explosion

One man was killed and another injured when a 40-foot tank exploded at Arco’s Carson refinery Wednesday morning, company officials said.

Enrique Campos, 52, was installing a device on the top of the 10-foot-wide, cylindrical tank with a torch gun when it exploded, peeling the roof back, said Arco spokesman Walter Neil.

The tank is believed to have contained lime slurry, which is used as part of the water treatment process in the plant’s cogeneration unit, Neil said. The substance is not considered flammable, he said.

Los Angeles County firefighters responded to the blast in the 22000 block of Wilmington Avenue about 8:30 a.m., said Charlotte Kramer, a Fire Department spokeswoman.

Campos, a Carson resident and employee of Total Western, a contractor that performs maintenance work at the refinery, was treated at the site by paramedics and was taken to Harbor General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, she said.

Herschel Evans, 37, an Arco employee who was climbing up the side of the tank, was thrown to the ground by the force of the blast and his left leg was broken in 12 places, Neil said.

Another Arco employee, Gary Hopkins, 48, broke his leg when he was struck by a vehicle as he watched the rescue, Neil said.

“Arco is deeply saddened by this incident and expresses sincere condolences to the family of the contract worker,” he said, adding that a crisis management team was called in to counsel employees.

It was the first fatality reported at the plant since 1985, when two people were killed and 45 injured in a chain of explosions from a gasoline-processing pump.

The cause of Wednesday’s blast is under investigation, said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for Cal-OSHA.