Chevron Identifies Missing Fracking Worker

While Pennsylvania State Trooper Jim Dawson told Before It’s News reporter Deborah Dupré on Monday that his department’s investigation team will probably not release information regarding its fracking well explosion and missing man investigation later this week, Chevron identified the missing worker from last week’s gas well blast, propane truck explosion, and fire in Dunkard Township, Greene County. 

The missing man, Ian McKee, 27, worked for Cameron International, that on Wednesday, again declined commenting about their missing employee.

[Read: Pa. Gas Big Blowout Coverup: Missing Man Employed By Same Failed Macondo BOP Company]

Mr. McFee graduated from Warren Area High School in 2004, and has been living in Morgantown, W.Va., with his girlfriend, Danielle Desposito, according to Melissa Almendinger of Warren.

Almendinger said at the vigil that McKee’s mother, stepfather and sister still live in Warren and that she organized last Thursday’s vigil for “my best friend and the godfather of my son.”

Friends and family attended a candlelight vigil Thursday for Mr. McKee, originally from Warren, Pennsylvania, but resident of Morgantown, W.Va.

Mr. McKee, employed by Houston-based Cameron International, a contractor to Chevron, was on the well pad site near Bobtown when the well and a propane truck on the pad both exploded last Tuesday morning.

Officials at a press conference Monday in Morgantown said they continue to search for the man, who has been feared dead. A Chevron spokeswoman said the company “cannot comment or speculate on the status or identity of our unaccounted for colleague” because of the ongoing state police investigation.

She referred all questions to the state police. Pennsylvania State Police, however, told Deborah Dupré Monday that they have no further information for the public on the missing man or the cause of the fire.

They have said that until they can get access to the site, they will not release the identity of the missing worker.

“This is an extremely difficult time for our Chevron family and those who work for Cameron Surface Systems,” Chevron spokesman Trip Oliver said Monday. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to family and friends.”

A spokesman for Houston-based Cameron International declined comment Wednesday morning.

Mr. Oliver said Monday if the missing employee is confirmed to have died in the explosion, it would be the first Marcellus operations-related fatality for Chevron.

Sunday, Deborah Dupré interviewed people in the area of the disaster and produced a video of those accounts.

[See: Exclusive Pa. Fracking Well Blast Area Day 7 Video: Suspicious Silence, Police Roadblocks, Contradictions]

“There was a big ball of flames that came right across the trees,” explained a Bobtown local in his driveway, pointing toward his house, surrounded by trees. He asked that he not be videoed. “We’re probably about 1700 feet from the well pad.”

The fire, that began between 6:00 and 6:45 A.M. last Tuesday, was fueled by gas from two of the three Marcellus Shale wells on Chevron’s well pad.

“Considering the magnitude of gas sites in this area,” Pennsylvania State Trooper Plume said the day of the blast, Feb. 11, “Fire departments are trained how to respond to situations like these.”

First responders immediately saw a situation beyond fighting last Tuesday. They aided workers still on site to leave, helped get an injured worker to hospital, and established perimeters around the massive chemical fire. They could not get closer to the well pad than 300 feet due to heat from the inferno.

While the identity of the missing man is known, there is much unknown, many declining to speak, roadblocks preventing media access to the crime scene, (as observed in the video below taken Sunday afternoon). Much information related to these unknowns is expected to be released by the end of this week.

Source: Times Observer, Article by Molly Born, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 18, 2014, Before It’s News