Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Female contract worker Yesenia Espinoza, 31, employed by Echo Maintenance LLC, died when a pipe fell and struck her on the head at ExxonMobil Corp’s refinery in Beaumont, Texas










A female contract worker Yesenia Espinoza, 31, employed by Echo Maintenance LLC, died when a pipe fell and struck her on the head at ExxonMobil Corp’s refinery in Beaumont, Texas


The worker killed on a construction project at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Beaumont died after she was hit by a piece of piping, according to a suit filed by her family Monday.

Yesenia Espinoza, 31, was working for Echo Maintenance on a construction project.

In the suit, filed in Jefferson County, Houston attorney Mynor "Eddie" Rodriguez alleges that Exxon Mobil, Bechtel and Echo Maintenance were negligent and caused Espinoza's wrongful death.


>> Read the suit here.

The petition alleges that the piping that hit Espinoza was "improperly rigged and handled" by the companies.

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Ashley Alemayehu said today that the incident is still under investigation.

Judge Donald Floyd signed a temporary order Tuesday, prohibiting the companies from modifying, altering or disposing of "the facility or any of its component parts involved in the death of Yesenia Espinoza."

The order prevents the companies from moving or transporting any parts of the facility without permission from the Court, and protects tools, machinery or clothing involved in her death, as well as records or photographs related to the incident.

The order is in place until Dec. 13, when Floyd will hold a hearing and decide whether to issue a temporary injunction extending the order.

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Contract worker dies in accident at Exxon's Beaumont refinery


(Reuters) - A female contract worker was fatally injured on Friday while working on a construction project at ExxonMobil Corp’s refinery in Beaumont, Texas, a company spokeswoman said.


ExxonMobil spokeswoman Charlotte Huffaker said the woman was employed by Echo Maintenance LLC, which does construction for refineries and chemical plants.

Sources familiar with plant operations said the worker died when a pipe fell and struck her on the head.

Production was not affected by Friday’s accident, the sources said. The refinery is already operating at 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) below its 362,300 bpd capacity because the smaller of two crude distillation units (CDUs) remains shut following a Tuesday fire.

The 110,000 bpd CDU sustained heavy damage in the Tuesday morning blaze that caused no injuries.

A spokeswoman at Echo’s Port Arthur, Texas, headquarters said the company had no immediate comment.

The woman was working a project to build a SCANfinig unit, which removes sulfur from gasoline to comply ultra-low sulfur gasoline standards, the sources said. SCAN stands for Selective Cat Naphtha hydrofining.

The worker was 31 years old, according to the sources. She was struck by a 24-inch (61-cm) pipe.

In May 2016, a contract worker was struck in the head by a pipe on a construction project at the Beaumont refinery and died.