» Mayor Turner calls for legislators to give the city more power to regulate chemicals to protect residents.
Families of victims grieve after explosion killed two at a Spring Branch-area plant
It took a phone call to Camp Lejeune from Houston’s police chief to get a Marine back to Houston to grieve with his family after Friday’s deadly explosion at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing.
Gerardo Castorena Jr.’s father was one of two men killed by the early morning blast at the Spring Branch-area plant, which damaged more than 200 nearby homes, knocked dozens off their foundations, and rattled windows across the city.
But his superiors at the North Carolina base did not immediately authorize him to return home because his father’s identity had not yet been officially confirmed, Police Chief Art Acevedo said.
“It made it a priority for us to get the young Marine home,” said Acevedo, noting the Marine was
expected home Saturday night.
The 4:30 a.m. explosion obliterated much of the Gessner Road plant, killing Gerardo Castorena Sr., 45, and coworker Frank Flores, 44, both of whom had showed up early to work out in the on-site gym.
Investigators spent Saturday combing the wreckage, but ended the day without releasing new details. Authorities have identified the chemical involved as propylene, which is used for the production of films, fibers and plastic packaging, but Acevedo said determining the cause of the blast will take days.
After taking his second tour of the site, Mayor Sylvester Turner said more must be done to protect Houstonians from dangerous chemicals and called on state and federal lawmakers to give the city more regulatory leeway.
Dozens of volunteers fanned out to help those with damaged homes prepare for incoming rain by boarding up blown-out windows and putting tarps on damaged roofs. Scores of homeowners gathered at a nearby Mexican restaurant to hear from a gaggle of plaintiffs’ attorneys. Some homeowners were working on little sleep, their hands shaking and their bodies splotched with bruises from the debris the blast tore from their walls and ceilings.
The bulk of the trauma Saturday, however, rested with the Castorena and Flores families.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we had to say goodbye to a loving father, son, brother, and friend yesterday morning,” the Castorena family said in a statement Saturday evening. “We do ask for privacy as we grieve during this time.
Thank you all to those for your kind words and support as we get through this difficult time.”
In addition to his son in the Marines, Castorena Sr. also was a father to three girls, said his former wife of 15 years, Frances Carraquillo. Carraquillo joined relatives and friends in paying tribute to Castorena in a Facebook post asking for help in paying for his funeral and for her son’s travel expenses from Camp Lejeune.
“This Friday my father was taken from me in the accident at Watson,” the Marine wrote. “This is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through.”
Flores’ wife, Margarita, said when reached by phone Saturday that she was surrounded by loved ones but was not ready to talk.
A longtime Watson Grinding and Manufacturing employee who asked to not be identified said he worked closely with Flores and Castorena Sr. and said both were well-liked, but could not comment further because he was not authorized to speak with media.
Mourned as “Frankie” in social media posts, Flores was a longtime employee of the Watson plant, Acevedo said after speaking with the family.
“He was a leader of that family,” the chief said. “He was completely loved by that family and all about hard work.”
‘Very dangerous’ place
The explosion didn’t shock Thomas Gonzales, who worked at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing for a year and filed a formal safety complaint against the company with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2006.
“That place is very dangerous,” Gonzales said.
In the complaint, Gonzales described equipment not securely fastened to the floor and employees working with grinders and tungsten carbide spray without dust masks or gloves. Tungsten carbide can cause a skin allergy, lung allergy or lung scarring, according to the New Jersey Department of Health.
OSHA responded to Gonzales by recommending citations for several of his complaints, according to a letter from the agency included in a worker compensation suit he filed in 2007. In the suit, he alleged he had injured his back tripping over extension cords left on the floor. A judge dismissed the case.
Over the years, OSHA has also cited the familyowned machining company — which makes and services parts for everything from the oil and gas to aerospace industries — for safety violations and workplace injuries. In 2013, OSHA issued a fine initially assessed at $13,400 for failing to protect workers from machines. Two years later, a worker lost an index finger to a lathe at the facility. Last year, an employee was crushed when an 831pound metal shaft tipped over.
The firm was founded by James Watson and is now owned and headed by his son, John M. Watson, who could not be reached for comment. A statement released by the company late Friday expressed condolences to the families and a willingness to cooperate with investigators.
The company started small in 1960 and has grown over the years to more than 100 employees. Public records suggest the business grew to be a financial success. Watson’s former house has been listed at $4.1 million, and he took out a $2 million loan for a 6,400-square-foot modernist home west of River Oaks. Texas Parks and Wildlife lists him as the owner of a 56-foot yacht.
‘Here for a while’
A little more than a mile down Gessner from the plant, at Chavez Mexican Cafe, about 100 homeowners gathered to hear lawyer Robert S. Kwok’s pitch, as he pledged to represent them in lawsuits against whoever is deemed responsible for the disaster and seek relief for damages to their property, mental and physical injuries and lost wages.
Many families from the working-class area said they hadn’t had time to see a doctor yet and were rattled and disoriented from the ordeal. About half of the dozens of families at the lunch said by a show of hands that they did not have homeowners insurance.
Wendy Bostick Honda and her family are staying in the first story of their home because the upstairs is too damaged.
“I’ve been having a headache ever since,” Bostick Honda said. “And we’re all still hear noises and feeling vibrations. Last night, I kept having nightmares. I keep thinking, ‘Are we going to have another explosion?’ ”
The woman’s usually healthy 2-year-old dog won’t eat or even come out of her bedroom.
The event was plagued by an evident language barrier that prevented many from clearly following the discussion. Still, a long line formed at the end of the meeting to provide their information to Kwok’s team.
Back at the blast site, Turner vowed that the city’s response to the explosion would continue far past when the dust and debris settle.
“We weren’t just here yesterday and now we are gone. We are going to be here for a while,” Turner said. “If your home was impacted, if you are needing help — if you don’t have insurance, for example — I want people to reach out and let us know so we can assist them.”
The mayor also said the federal government handicaps what information cities and the general public can retrieve from companies, though he didn’t cite specific pre-emptions. He called on the Legislature and Congress to do everything in their power “to at least allow us to have the information.”
“It is important to identify the cause or causes of this explosion in order to mitigate the risk of something like this happening again,” Turner said. “But I want to emphasize it’s important for the city to know what chemicals are being housed, stored in these facilities, and right now we are pre-empted from knowing.”
A 2016 analysis by the Houston Chronicle found that the city had a role as well. That analysis found that Houston firefighters often don’t know where hazardous chemicals are because of poor city inspection processes.
The Watson Grinding blast was the city’s first fatal explosion of 2020, but such incidents are a common occurrence in the region. The Houston area experienced five major chemical incidents last year.