Twelve years after Kleen Energy plant disaster, suits drag on
On a snow-covered morning in February 2010, workers at the Kleen Energy plant under construction in Middletown were attempting to clear any remaining debris from the network of pipes by using the force of roughly 480,000 gallons of natural gas — enough to fill more than five Olympic swimming pools.
What exactly caused the cloud of gas to ignite was never determined, though investigators would later point to several possible sources.
The resulting explosion killed six workers and injured more than 50, while leading to new national standards that called on companies to stop the use of flammable natural gas in so-called “gas blows.”
But as friends and family members of the victims along with the survivors marked the 12-year anniversary of the explosion on Monday, some are still engaged in a drawn-out legal battle seeking to hold the operators of the plant responsible for the disaster.
“They’ve accepted no responsibility,” said Paula Dobratz, whose husband Raymond was among those killed in the powerful blast.
“Think of how long they’ve had to fight also with their attorneys for 12 years to make sure that the rest of the people that have cases against them get nothing and still have to wait,” Dobratz said. “There’s no closure.”
The other victims of the explosion were Peter C. Chepulis, Ronald J. Crabb, Kenneth W. Haskell Jr., Roy D. Rushton and Vance C. Walters.
In the years following the explosion, New Haven attorney Joel Faxon has represented the Dobratz family along with roughly a dozen injured workers in a series of lawsuits related to the disaster. Most of their claims, Faxon said Monday, have proceeded through the courts as part “test cases” brought on the behalf of two injured workers.
In December, the Connecticut Supreme Court dismissed the latest part of that effort, finding that the plant's operator, Kleen Energy Systems, lacked sufficient control over the independent contractor in charge of construction to be held liable for the explosion. The court’s decision follows its own earlier ruling in 2016, finding that the contractor, O&G Industries of Torrington, had already paid worker’s compensation benefits and was immune from having to pay further damages.
The decisions have left the victims and their families with just two pending claims against Kleen Energy related to the inherent dangers of using flammable gas to clean piping equipment, Flaxon said.
Representatives and an attorney for Kleen Energy Systems did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Other than two subcontractors that reached confidential settlements with the victims in 2017 — Keystone Construction and Blue Water Energy Solutions — Flaxon said none of the companies involved in the explosion have admitted to wrongdoing.
“Some of these folks have never seen the inside of a courtroom, so they have been let down by the judicial system with how long it’s taking,” Flaxon said. “We’re going to fight to the very end for these folks.”
In a statement released on the anniversary of the explosion Monday, O&G Industries
Attorney Michael Lynch said accountability for the explosion rested with the subcontractors.
“Multiple Connecticut judges have reviewed the claims against O&G and Kleen Energy and found that they were not legally responsible for the explosion,” Lynch said. “However, the two key subcontractors responsible for the gas blows that resulted in the explosion have been held accountable as substantial judgments have entered against them.”
A memorial ceremony for the victims of the explosion was held in Middletown on Sunday by the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 777.
Paul Venti, a retired member of the union who worked on the Kleen Energy project and has organized the memorials for the last decade, said the disaster could have been avoided.
“Six people never went home that day,” Venti said.
More than $16.6 million in penalties were handed down by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the wake of the disaster, one of the highest enforcement actions ever taken by the agency.
O&G received the largest fine, $10.6 million, followed by Keystone with a fine of $6.6 million and a $896,000 fine for Blue Water. Keystone later paid a fraction of its original fine after reaching a settlement with OSHA in 2015, the Hartford Courant reported.
The explosion prompted new calls to ban the use of natural gas in “blows” to clear out pipes. Just months after the disaster, then-Gov. Jodi Rell banned the practice. Federal standards were later issued advising companies to use non-flammable gasses such as air or nitrogen to clear debris from pipes.
The night before the fatal explosion, Paula Dobratz recalled on Monday, her husband was unusually animated about the upcoming “gas blow” procedure, despite rarely being nervous about the nature of his work.
“He said to me at one point as he was talking about it, ‘You don’t know how dangerous this is,’” Dobratz recalled. “But I didn’t think he meant that, like you could die.’ ”