Marine Terminal Worker Suffocated Within Export Wood Pellet Silo [Port Arthur, Texas 20 October 2017]

Posted by admin on Oct 22, 2017 in Bulletins

Reports coming to Blueoceana Company show that an as-yet unidentified worker was suffocated early Friday morning (20 October) in an avalanche of wood pellets at the German Pellets Texas, LLC facility at the Port of Port Arthur. Our understanding is that he was operating a Bobcat-like industrial front end loader/pusher within one of the firm’s dockside silos when a product jam above him collapsed and engulfed him.

Link to Media Account:   Man dies in German Pellets accident (102017)

Data available online tends to show that the firm’s Louisiana operation experienced a fatal accident last October, when a worker fell to his death from an elevating platform device. OSHA cited German Pellets Louisiana as a consequence of that accident’s investigation. Here’s a link to a related OSHA online inspection record:

https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1189398.015

Earlier this year, another of the Port Arthur facility’s silos erupted in a fire that burned and smoldered for months. The resultant noxious fumes plagued the Port Arthur community to no end, causing the city to file legal action against the firm. Here’s a link to related media coverage:

http://www.panews.com/2017/06/04/german-pellets-silo-collapses/