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Death toll in refinery blast rises to 15

No indication of sabotage, says oil executive


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Desperate rescues are followed by a solemn moment.

Rudi Bakhtiar discusses the Texas oil refinery fire. (March 24)
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TEXAS CITY, Texas (CNN) -- One more body was found Thursday by searchers combing the ruins of part of a Texas refinery after an explosion at the site Wednesday, refinery officials said.

That death brings the toll of those killed to 15.

It is not clear whether the latest body found is that of the one person who had not yet been accounted for after the blast, although security records showed that person had checked out of the site before the explosion.

Earlier Thursday, the president of BP America said there was no indication the explosion was anything other than an accident.

"There's no indication of any sabotage or terrorism," Ross Pillari said when asked about reports of FBI investigators at the scene of Wednesday's blast at the BP plant.

"It's not unusual for the FBI to contact us" when something like this happens, Pillari said. "It's pretty routine."

Plant officials said in addition to those killed, more than 70 people were injured, at least five of them seriously.

The damaged unit wasn't producing gasoline at the time of the blast because it was in maintenance, said BP spokesman Hugh Depland. The plant's output on Thursday was not affected by the explosion.

"Our production today is about the same as it was the day before yesterday," Depland said Thursday.

An already-tense energy market went further on edge Thursday as the refinery fire sent gasoline futures prices soaring and raised concerns about summer shortages. (Full story)

All of the dead were contract workers at the plant about 40 miles southeast of Houston. They worked for J.E. Merritt, a division of Jacobs Engineering based in Los Angeles, California, refinery officials said.

"I am here today to express BP's deep regret over yesterday's accident," Pillari said in a news conference early Thursday. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who died and with those from the work force and the community who were injured."

He promised that all possible resources would be used to determine what happened and to review safety measures at the refinery.

The blast occurred at 1:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. ET) in the refinery's isomerization unit, where the octane of gasoline is raised. It took nearly two hours to extinguish the blaze, BP spokesman Bill Stephens said.

"One of the most dangerous things we do is bring units up and down," Stephens said of the work going on in the unit where the blast originated.

About 60 of the injured were taken to the nearby Mainland Medical Center, said hospital spokesman Harold Fattig.

One of those was airlifted to a hospital in Houston, 53 were treated and released and six were admitted. Five of those patients are in good condition, Fattig said, and one is in ICU in stable condition with head injuries.

Not all of the dead had been positively identified, company officials said.

A family crisis center was set up at the Texas City Convention Center, where relatives of those believed to have been killed brought pictures and other identifying information.

Many hugged each other and cried.

Some relatives were being escorted to a morgue set up in nearby Galveston to identify their loved ones.

About 1,800 BP employees work at the 1,500-acre plant near Galveston and an unknown number of private contractors also were there, Stephens said. The number of contractors rises during "turnaround" season, when the refinery changes the amount of sulfur and other contaminants in the gasoline to comply with environmental regulations.

For a short period, as a precautionary measure, Texas City residents were ordered to stay indoors after the blast, which could be felt miles away, "but that was quickly pulled," Stephens said.

The plant was operating Thursday at near normal pace and at normal production, with the exception of the unit that was damaged, he said.

The refinery -- the country's third-largest -- produced 460,000 barrels of gasoline per day, 3 percent of the U.S. supply, said John Bresland, a member of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

The board is an independent federal agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents. The board does not issue citations or fines, but does make safety recommendations.

CNN's Eric Fiegel contributed to this report


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