A Plant Explosion Survivor’s Path to Recovery

Christopher Devall was doing what he did every morning. He got to work, lined out his crew, and was getting ready for the day. It was 8:30 a.m. on a June morning at a plant in Louisiana. But before his crew even made it to break, everything changed.

No Warning

The explosion gave no sign it was coming. No alarm. No announcement. Just a blast that tore through the facility and changed the lives of everyone in it.

"There was no warning, no nothing. Just boom."

Two workers were killed that day. More than 100 others were injured. The explosion was later traced to years of deferred maintenance and safety failures that had been documented but never addressed. Christopher was one of the workers left to deal with the aftermath of decisions he had no part in making.

A Feeling He Remembered

When Christopher started looking for legal help, he came across Arnold & Itkin. What stood out to him wasn't a sales pitch or a promise. It was something more basic than that: they don't back down.

It reminded him of something from childhood.

"I had my bicycle stolen when I was like, 8 years old, and I remember my mom going and getting it back. I felt like that again. 'Yeah, mom, you got my bicycle back.' Nobody would do that for you."

Then he grew up, and something far worse happened. But that same feeling came back when he watched Kurt Arnold and Jason Itkin go to work on his behalf.

"Kurt gets up there, and Jason's talking for me, and you're like, 'Yeah, what he said!'"

Taking Care of the Whole Person

For Christopher, what set the firm apart wasn't just the courtroom wins. It was the way Arnold & Itkin handled everything around them.

"It was never about monetary gain or loss or anything like that. It was more, 'How are you doing mentally? How you doing physically? This is where we need to go with it.'"

The firm helped him get medical care and paid attention to how he was holding up as a person, not just as a case. Christopher says that approach went further than anything he could have expected.

"They did more than anyone else would have done. They did more than anybody else would have to do."

Miracles

Christopher doesn't hold back when he talks about what Arnold & Itkin meant to him.

"This firm has impacted every aspect of my life, past, present, future. They pulled off some miracles. They stood up for me when nobody else would. I appreciate what they did."

His story is one of a worker who showed up, did his job, and had his life ripped apart by a disaster that never should have happened. What came after was a long road, but Christopher didn't walk it alone. He had people willing to fight for him. No matter what.