Five die in refinery fire
Two in critical condition
By JEREMIAH O’HAGAN Staff Reporter
Friday’s 12:30 a.m. explosion at Tesoro’s Anacortes refinery stole the lives of five workers, critically injured two others and sparked flames that raged for the next hour and a half until fire crews put them down.
Daniel Aldridge, 50, of Anacortes; Matthew Bowen, 31, of Arlington; and Darrin Hoines, 43, of Ferndale, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Kathryn Powell, 29, died later Friday morning and Donna Van Dreumel, 36, died Friday night, after being airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to Tesoro’s news releases.
Two others, Lew Janz, 41, and Matt Gumbel, 34, were also airlifted to Harborview. Gumbel has been updated to serious condition, but Janz remains critical, said Susan Gregg-Hanson, spokeswoman for Harborview. Both men remain in intensive care.
According to Gumbel’s CaringBridge Web site, which is sponsored by Harborview, Gumbel has burns on two-thirds of his body and a tear in his trachea, which caused one lung to collapse. Doctors anticipate multiple surgeries will be required to remove and repair his burned tissue.
Janz’s CaringBridge site reported that Saturday night “Janz was in a medically induced coma with burns over 75 percent of his body.”
As of Monday morning, doctors were preparing Janz for skin grafts.
Lynn Westfall, Tesoros’s senior vice president of external relations, said both men are reportedly aware of their surroundings.
“Both men are being scheduled for skin-replacement surgeries, and we take that as a sign that they’re in stable condition,” Westfall said.T
he blast, which rocked RVs and shook houses in the surrounding area, is believed to have occurred in one of the heat exchangers in the plant’s naphtha hydro-treater unit, Westfall said.
Westfall said investigations of this magnitude are extensive and time-consuming, so it will be quite some time before the cause of the explosion is determined.
Staff Reporter Jeremiah
O’Hagan: 629-8066 ext. 125
or ohagan@scnews.com.
