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November 19, 2012

Company looks for worker after oil rig fire in Gulf

The Associated Press Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — As crews searched Sunday for a worker still missing after an oil platform explosion and fire, doctors said one of four men burned in the blaze is improving and is now in fair condition.

Two remained in critical condition and one in serious condition, doctors say.

The company that owned the platform that caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico pledged Sunday to keep searching for a second worker still missing after a body was found in about 30 feet of water near one leg of the platform.

At Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s burn unit, Wilberto Ilagan, 50, of the Philippines, told Dr. Jeffrey Littleton that he wanted to send a message, according to a news release issued Sunday.

“To my relatives, to my family, and to my country, I am alive and in good health,” Ilagan said. “I am burned, but my heart and lungs are healthy.”

According to The Advocate (http://bit.ly/ZT9WLy ), Littleton said Sunday that the other men’s names are being withheld because they have not given their consent to release them.

The Philippine Embassy in Washington has said all the workers are from the Philippines.

The remains of the unidentified person were found Saturday night by divers hired by Houston-based Black Elk Energy, Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Vega said. He said the Coast Guard, which has suspended its own search, would turn over the body to local authorities.

John Hoffman, the president and CEO of Black Elk Energy, has said the body is apparently one of two crew members missing since an explosion and fire on the oil platform Friday morning. Hoffman said the body was found by a contract dive vessel.

He wrote in an email Sunday morning that a second dive vessel was brought in to speed up the search for the second missing worker.

“The workers impacted by this accident continue to be our primary focus,” Hoffman wrote.

Hoffman said the body was found near where the explosion occurred. The missing and wounded workers were employees of oilfield contractor Grand Isle Shipyard, he said.

GIS CEO Mark Pregeant released a statement that the company has notified the families of those involved but was declining to release their names, WWL-TV in New Orleans reported.

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