Worker Sues ExxonMobil for Writing off Injuries as Similar to 'Sunburns'

Alvaro Coronel, a worker at the U.S. Baytown-Texas ExxonMobil plant is suing the company after its clinic considered the injuries he suffered from following Wednesday’s explosion, as similar to “sunburns.”

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Meeting the press on Friday, two days after the incident, Coronel, a crane operator, accompanied by his attorneys related the incident and showed his burn injuries.

"I heard the first bang, you know, the first blast," he recalled. "I thought it was something else."

He said he ran towards an evacuation path just after the first explosion and fell following the second one.

"So, we're running and that second explosion, I mean, it was loud," said Coronel, adding that he, "thought I was burning alive pretty much. That third blast, it rocked the ground."

He was then transported by ExxonMobil officials to the company’s clinic where he was simply bandaged and his burn injuries later wrote off as similar to "sunburns."

Working at the plant for eight months, he said it seemed to function correctly and that what happened Wednesday was an accident. However, he would have wished to have received a better treatment given his injuries.

The case is the latest legal action against the oil and gas corporation after the explosion.

Harris County in the state of Texas sued the company just the day after the blasts alleging it violated the Texas Clean Air Act due to the release of pollutants.

The Baytown complex that includes the olefins plant where the fire occurred, employs about 7,000 people among four manufacturing sites that cover 1,375 hectares. The complex sits along the Houston Ship Channel, the nation’s largest and busiest energy port.

Sixty-six people were treated after the plant caught fire following the explosion.