‘They are accusing two dead men’
Mother says son getting blamed for explosion at facility, wants name cleared
A Scotchtown mother grieving the tragic loss of her son didn’t think it was possible for the unbearable pain to get any worse. But it has. Bernice Williams says company officials with Nexen are blaming her son Dave, 30, and another worker for the accidental explosion at the Long Lake facility in Fort McMurray. that took both their lives.
“They are accusing two dead men,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right as they aren’t there to defend themselves. How can they accuse them when the investigation into the accident isn’t even over?”
Williams said she has to defend her son because he’s not here anymore to defend himself.
“All I want from this company is to have my son’s name cleared.”
Dave Williams, a journeyman millwright who worked at the Nexen Long Lake Project for four years, was critically injured in an explosion at the facility Jan. 15, 2016. According to company officials at the time of the accident, Dave and another worker, Drew Foster, 52, who also died in the explosion, were conducting maintenance in a building that’s part of the upgrader’s hydrocracker.
Dave was transferred to the burn unit at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton in critical condition.
Williams said her son wasn’t in the area the actual explosion occurred; he was at the door. She said the only worker that was there, died at the scene.
“Dave was talking when they found him,” she said. “He said he was scared to die.”
“It’s the way he went. He was a good worker, he didn’t deserve that.”
Williams said her son had bought a house in Calgary. Her husband Michael was living with him and also working at the same company.
The entire family gathered by Dave’s side including his three brothers Archie, 27, Michael 31, and Duke, 36. He was in a semi-coma, and she never got to talk to him. He died Jan. 25.
“I was praying he could hear me though, that he knew I was there.”
She said it was torture watching his struggle to survive.
“Dave loved life so much, that’s why he fought so hard to live.”
She said the company called her about a week ago, and wanted her to fly to Calgary so they could provide details of their investigation into the explosion.
“I’m in no shape for that, a 12hour flight to hear the details and a 12-hour flight back.”
She said the company should come to Cape Breton. As a result she said Nexen officials ended up telling her the details on the phone, blaming her son and the other worker.
“They told us they concluded their investigation and the workers were at fault,” she said.
“That they were working outside their scope, they were doing work they weren’t suppose to be doing.”
She said so much is being left out including information they received of a third worker there who had left to get a ladder.
“They won’t answer our questions.”
Archie Williams, 27, brother of the late Dave Williams, worked for Nexen from 2008-2014. He
said his brother’s designated work area was Area 2, the water treatment/ steam plant, and so forth. However, the explosion occurred in the hydro cracker unit, the opposite side of the plant.
“He was put in an area that wasn’t even his,” he said. “That’s something we’d like to know - why they put him in this area? This would have been one of the first things they investigated.”
He said the area in question was the designated work area of the employee who died at the scene.
Archie, who also spoke to Nexen officials on the phone, said the company declined to answer more questions, citing the investigation is still ongoing. However then the company held a press conference announcing investigation is over and that the workers were at fault, he added.
“Why aren’t they giving us a report of the initial findings - we are the family of the deceased.”
Archie said he wants to know why the company hasn’t released the fact this was not his brother’s work area.
He said an investigative specialist with Alberta Occupational Health and Safety confirmed Dave was found by the door.
‘He wasn’t right at the explosion, he didn’t have a broken bone in his body.”
He said OHS told them they aren’t close to finishing their investigation.
“Yet Nexen is done and released their findings, stating both workers were at fault?”
“It’s bad enough he’s gone and now they turn around and do this,” he said, adding the company has to clear his brother’s name.
“I don’t want my brother remembered as someone who caused an explosion.”
Calgary-based Nexen Energy ULC was acquired by China’s state-owned CNOOC Ltd. more than two years ago.
Brittany Price, manager of corporate communications for Nexen, said the company did hold a press conference and it wasn’t their intention at all to make it seem like they were placing blame on the Williams or Foster families.
“As an operator we take accountability for everything that happens on our site,” she said.
“It was not our intention at all to make those families feel like we were placing the blame on them. As an operator, it just falls on us.”
Price said the company has competed the initial stages of their investigation and OHS is still completing their investigation. She said the press conference was to share the initial stages of the investigation, to be open and transparent.
She said their initial findings was that work that was being done at the time of the explosion, and was being performed outside of the scope of approved work activities.
“Regardless of that, as a company we take full accountability for any work that’s performed on our site and we are accountable for all of that work.”
Price declined to answer why Dave was working in a section of the facility that wasn’t his work area, commenting the investigation is ongoing.
“I shared just the root analysis of why we think this occurred but I’m not really able to share anymore yet.”
Price said during their investigation they identified gaps— including in their safety culture — and are working to address them.
Nexen officials announced a day to return the Upgrader into full service has not been established and in the meantime have turned to a
SAGD-only operation, anticipating a layoff of 350 employees in 2016.