Texas City Explosion Ten Years Later: Lesson Learned and Ignored

March 23 marked the 10-year anniversary of the fatal Texas City explosion. Fifteen workers died and about 180 others were injured amid a series of explosions at the BP oil refinery in Texas City.

As described in coverage from the Texas Tribune and Houston Chronicle, warnings from the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board about underlying and “significant cultural, human factors, and organizational causes” of that disaster have not entirely been internalized by the industry.

We discuss the investigative report, the lessons learned from the fatal explosion, and what procedures, if any, have changed since the incident ten years ago with Jim Malewitz, a reporter for the Texas Tribune, and Lise Olsen, an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle.