Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog
Workers, including those who work around dangerous and volatile chemicals and equipment, are entitled to a safe workplace. Too often, though, their workplaces are not safe. When that lack of safety is the result of negligence and that negligence leads to serious injury or death, the injured worker (or the worker’s surviving family) may be entitled to hold those negligent parties accountable through a civil lawsuit. These lawsuits are often complex and nuanced, requiring the unique skills and knowledge of an experienced Oregon industrial accident lawyer.
One such workplace type is one that uses vessels whose contents are under pressure. On Nov. 12, 2025, friends, family, and coworkers marked the one-year anniversary of the massive tank explosion that killed two workers at a manufacturing facility that produced cosmetic and food colorings.
Back in mid-November 2024, investigators from the Chemical Safety Board swiftly pinpointed the cause of the explosion. A container — cooking vessel number 6 — blew up.
Like many industrial accidents, “Cooking Vessel Number 6” did not simply explode without warning. As an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms noted when asked about possible red flags, “there was some indication that there had been some maintenance issues with that particular vessel.”
The explosion was the result of a confluence of factors. For one thing, according to a local chemical engineering professor, a vent that should have opened did not open properly. That lack of proper venting caused the vessel to overheat (30 degrees above its limit) and to become over-pressurized (three times its maximum allowable pressure), triggering the explosion.
The tank had a “rupture disc,” an emergency failsafe that activates when a container becomes overheated and over-pressurized, but it failed to alleviate the problem. “The rupture disc did kick in, but either it didn’t open completely or the pressure and temperature was just so high that the temperature just kept on building,” according to the professor.
Legal Options in the Aftermath of a Workplace Accident
This explosion happened in Kentucky, but chemical and processing plant workers in Oregon face similar workplace risks every day. When accidents like this occur, workers (or their surviving loved ones) need skilled legal counsel. Oregon law does not allow injured workers to sue their employers for the harm they suffer in an industrial accident — they are limited to obtaining workers’ compensation benefits.
That does not mean they cannot sue at all, however. Civil actions are an integral part of the process in many workplace accident situations. Oregon law allows injured workers to seek civil justice against third parties whose negligence contributed to the underlying accident. In an explosion scenario, the device that exploded may have been designed or manufactured defectively, which could allow for an industrial accident claim against the designer or manufacturer of the device that failed… or perhaps the manufacturer a part within the device.
Take, for example, an accident like the Kentucky explosion. A scenario similar to that one would require investigating the vessel, the vent, and the rupture disc. Discovering design defects or manufacturing defects in any of those might open the door to an industrial accident case.
Additional bases for a viable industrial accident case focus on issues related to installation, maintenance, or repair. If the employer outsourced installation, maintenance, or repair tasks to third parties and an investigation revealed negligence that contributed to the accident, then that lays the foundation of a winning industrial accident action. For example, in the Kentucky case, the employer used a third-party contractor to install the cooking vessel that exploded. As with design defect or manufacturing defect issues, a proper (and in-depth) investigation is key.
If you suffered a serious injury on the job or you have lost a loved one as a result of a workplace accident, you need a legal advocate with the correct set of skills. Industrial accident cases can be exceptionally intricate and complicated. The Oregon industrial accident attorneys at Kaplan Law LLC have the first-hand experience you need to provide effective advocacy in these matters. To learn more about our services, call (503) 226-3844 today or contact us online to schedule your free consultation.
