Missing Texas plant worker was in area of fire

HOUSTON (AP) — A contract worker who remains missing a day after a gas pipeline explosion at a Houston-area petroleum plant was near where the fire is thought to have happened, a company spokesman said today.

Rick Shaw was working in the area where the Tuesday fire is thought to have occurred at the Enterprise Products storage plant in Mont Belvieu, said Mike Phelps, a spokesman for Baton Rouge, La.-based plant contractor Turner Industries.

“We’re still listing him as missing and unaccounted for,” Phelps said Wednesday.

Relatives of Shaw told the Houston Chronicle they feared the worst after not hearing from him since the fire.

“It’s not looking good,” said Shaw’s brother, Mark Shaw, of Baytown. “One of the workers that was working with him said he was in the middle of the gas cloud when it happened, so I don’t really think he got out. It was a big fire.”

Messages left by The Associated Press at telephone listings for Rick Shaw and his brother were not immediately returned.

Crews cut off the fuel source that was feeding the blaze this morning, said Enterprise Products spokesman Rick Rainey. The storage area was closed as officials assessed the damage.

Rainey said the cause of the explosion remained under investigation, but possible pipeline failure would be considered. He has said workers heard a hissing sound before the blast.

The processing facilities that comprise the bulk of the complex in Mont Belvieu, about 30 miles east of Houston, have continued operating, Rainey said.