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POSTED: Thursday, October 09, 2008
                       

This story has been corrected. See below.

The company that employed a 23-year-old Waipahu man, killed after an oil tank exploded Tuesday at Campbell Industrial Park, was contracted to weld rails onto a waste-oil tank, said Ryan Markham, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Police reported the man was tacking or welding a metal footbridge when he stopped to ask a co-worker to adjust a welding machine, seconds before the tank exploded a few feet away. The force sent him into an adjacent business parking lot.

An estimated 8,000 to 9,000 gallons of reconditioned motor oil was in the tank when it exploded Tuesday, claiming the life of Sean Miguel Norva, according to the state Department of Health's Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office.

The oil, however, did not catch fire in the explosion, but the blast apparently threw the man about 100 feet away, hurtling the 9,500-gallon tank over a concrete wall and 30 feet away from its original location, leaving three others with minor injuries.

Norva was working at Philip Services Hawaii at its Komohana Street location.

“;He's an absolutely excellent worker as far as working and performing jobs well,”; said Macario Panajon, Norva's boss and owner of Panco, a fabrication and welding company.

He said the company's employees are a tight-knit group.

“;We're gathering to support each other and first and foremost to support the family,”; Panajon said.

He said he visited Norva's family members Tuesday night and they were grieving.

Panajon said he had been advised by investigators not to speak about the accident because of the ongoing investigations.

The Medical Examiner's Office determined Norva died of multiple internal injuries due to an industrial accident.

Jeffery Deer, president of Bonded Materials, which is next door to Philip Services, said his employee who was injured was simply unlucky.

The employee, who was not working for Philip Services, received minor injuries when the tank exploded and landed on Bonded's property, he said.

He was released from the hospital that day.

Two other men, who worked for subcontractors of Philip Services, were on Philip's property at the time of the blast. They also received minor injuries.

A gate welder who works next door to Panco in Kapolei said the company often handles dangerous jobs or works with flammable material.

The Honolulu Fire Department continued its investigation yesterday to determine the cause of the explosion.

The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Division investigators combed the surrounding area yesterday for damage to nearby businesses.

The state Health Department will monitor the cleanup by two companies, Pacific Commercial Services and Hawaiian Steam.

               

     

 

 

CORRECTION         » The state Health Department will monitor the cleanup by two companies of Tuesday's oil tank explosion in Campbell Industrial Park. A Page A5 story yesterday said the department contracted the companies.