“I Had About 30 Seconds...” A Plant Explosion Survivor Shares His Story

Chris Huckabaa went into work that morning the same way he always did. Got his tools out. Got ready to go. There was nothing unusual about the day until a sound tore through the plant that he will never forget.

Two Blasts, Then Chaos

The first explosion sent everyone into confusion. Workers looked around, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Then the second blast hit.

"It blew up the first time and everybody kind of freaked out and started looking around trying to figure out what the hell is going on. It blew again and I just took off."

The explosion at the plant killed two workers and injured more than 100 others. Chris was among them. In the moments after the blasts, with helicopters and news coverage on the way, Chris knew his wife would hear about it before he could reach her. He estimated he had about 30 seconds before communications would be overwhelmed.

"I called my wife for like a few seconds. I just said, 'Hey, plant blew up. I'm okay. Don't worry. Call you later. Love you.'"

That was all he could get out. For the next eight hours, he couldn't speak to her again.

Waiting Without Answers

Those eight hours of silence were their own kind of ordeal. Chris didn't know how things were going to go. His wife didn't know much more than what he had managed to say in those few seconds. Around them, workers were hurt, the plant was in ruins, and no one had a clear picture of what came next.

"At first, I didn't know how it was going to go."

The explosion was later traced to years of deferred maintenance at the plant, including a pressure relief valve that had never been installed on a standby reboiler. The fix would have taken minutes. Instead, hundreds of workers paid the price.

A Different Kind of Representation

When Chris reached out to Arnold & Itkin, he found a team that fought for him in ways he says other injured workers simply weren't experiencing.

"Whenever I talk to some of these other guys who had other people representing them, they were like, 'You're getting help with that?' They couldn't understand how I was getting help with things and they weren't."

That gap between what Chris received and what others didn't speaks to the difference the right representation can make. Arnold & Itkin represented over 100 workers injured in the explosion and won two consecutive jury verdicts before the companies involved agreed to settle. For Chris, the firm's willingness to fight made the outcome possible.

More Than the Here & Now

Chris has seen what happens when injured workers don't have someone in their corner. He has watched people get hurt and walk away with nothing. That's part of why the outcome of his case meant so much.

"I've heard of so many people getting hurt and saw people get hurt—mangled. A lot of things happened and nobody's gotten anything."

For Chris, the result wasn't just about recovering from the explosion. It was about building something that would last.

"I was able to take care of my family now and have things—an actual retirement that I can work on now. So it's not just about the here and now. It's about me actually securing me and my wife's future."

He doesn't hesitate when describing what Arnold & Itkin meant to him.

"This is a blessing and this is a godsend."

Chris's story is one of survival, but also of what becomes possible when injured workers have real advocates behind them. For Chris, having a firm that refused to back down was the difference between being left behind and being able to look ahead.