Four workers dead in Texas crane disaster

According to witnesses, an evacuation alarm sounded at the refinery at around 1:30 in the afternoon. Responding to the alarm, a number of workers ran into a lunch tent designated as an evacuation rally point. The crane, breaking off at the base, toppled directly onto the tent. Workers elsewhere at the facility described being lifted off the ground by the force of the impact. Arial photographs show the giant twisted lengths of the two cranes stretched out across the facility, as well as smashed buildings and vehicles, buckled concrete pavement, and flattened workers tents where the cranes fell.

It sounded like a buildingsounded like a building fell. I looked backI was on my way to evacuate the plant and I looked back and I see the arms coming down. After that, I just see a lot of black smoke, worker Stacy Davis told KPRC Local 2 News in Houston. I stopped in my tracks. We were in shock. I was in the middle of the street. I didnt know what to do. I wanted to cry. I believe some people got killed. It was so big and so loud and Id seen it come down.

The four men killed were employed as contract workers for Deep South Crane & Rigging, the company owning the crane. The workers have been identified as Marion Scooter Hubert Odom III, 41, of Highlands; John D. Henry, 33, of Dayton; Daniel DJ Lee Johnson, 30, of Dayton; and Rocky Dale Strength, 30, of Santa Fe, Texas.

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