Five people were injured, two of them critically, in an oil rig explosion in Kansas on Monday. All of them were hospitalized.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said Tuesday that it has launched an investigation into the incident that occurred about eight miles south of Sharon Springs as employees of Wichita-based Murfin Drilling Co. performed a drill stem test.
“They said they were changing the pipe out at a joint where they add-on to a point and had some gas leaking out of it. They were changing heads and getting ready to screw the other piece on when the explosion occurred,” Chief Jay Sharp, Wallace County Fire Department told the Associated Press.
Murfin Drilling has been cited by OSHA seven times since 2006, the agency said in a statement. One of those incidents included a fatality on a job site near Great Bend, Kansas. in March 2008. The company operates rigs in the western half of Kansas, Southwest Nebraska, Eastern Colorado, and the Oklahoma Panhandle, according to Bloomberg News.
Sources:
http://www.wtol.com/story/34047477/10-hospitalized-following-gas-leak-at-columbus-nursing-home
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/hurt-critically-kansas-oil-drilling-explosion-44172700