At approximately 1:22 p.m. CT on March 27, 2000, an explosion and fire responsible for one death and 71 injuries occurred at Phillips Petroleum's Houston Chemical Complex at 1400 Jefferson Road in Pasadena, Texas. The fire produced huge plumes of black smoke that spread over the heavily industrialized Houston Ship Channel and neighboring residential areas.The explosion occurred at the K-Resin facility, which made styrene-butadiene, a type of synthetic rubber. At the time of the explosion, the tank was out of service for cleaning and had no pressure or temperature gauges that would have provided the workers with an alert to the approaching crisis. Ultimately, this explosion resulted in one fatality, while 32 Phillips Petroleum employees and 39 subcontractors were taken to local hospitals for sustaining burns, smoke inhalation, and cuts from debris.It took search crews five hours to locate the body of a missing employee in the rubble. The dead man was Rodney Gott, a 45-year-old supervisor, who barely survived the Phillips Disaster of 1989. At that time, Gott was in a building whose roof collapsed but he remained in the blazing plant to save a woman and attend to the injured.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's six-month investigation concluded that failure to train workers properly was a key factor in the explosion and fire, and it proposed that Phillips Petroleum be fined $2.5 million in penalties for 50 alleged violations of safety standards at the facility.
2000Mar, 27
A Phillips Petroleum plant explosion in Pasadena, Texas kills one person and injures 71 others.
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Events on 2000
- 14Jan
Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina
A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years in prison for the 1993 killing of more than 100 Bosnian Muslims. - 3Apr
United States antitrust law
United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors. - 2May
Global Positioning System
President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military. - 22May
Sri Lankan Tamil people
In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna. - 26Nov
United States presidential election, 2000
George W. Bush is certified the winner of Florida's electoral votes by Katherine Harris, going on to win the United States presidential election, despite losing in the national popular vote.