Investigators sift through debris after 2 employees killed in NM oil refinery explosion
By Sue Major Holmes, APWednesday, March 3, 2010
Feds probe NM refinery explosion that killed 2
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Federal and state investigators are probing blackened debris at a southeastern New Mexico oil refinery where a storage tank explosion killed two men and critically injured two others.
Authorities say warning sirens sounded just before 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Navajo Refinery in Artesia, and the refinery was evacuated.
Police Sgt. Lindell Smith says one body was found on the site, and a second man is missing and presumed dead.
Smith identified the men as Natividad Andajo (nah-TEE’-vee-dad an-DAH’-hoh) of Odessa, Texas, and Victor Villa (VEE’-yah) of Midland, Texas.
Smith says they were employed by a contractor at the refinery, Northwest Insulation of Texas.
Two other contractor employees were airlifted to a Lubbock, Texas, hospital in critical condition.
The refinery has resumed operations.
Tags: Accidents, Albuquerque, Central America, Energy, Explosions, Fires, Latin America And Caribbean, Mexico, New Mexico, North America, Texas, United States