Families settle for $75 million in Bellingham pipeline explosion

E-mail this article Print this article

Olympic Pipe Line and other defendants have agreed to pay a record $75 million to the parents of two 10-year-old boys who died from burns suffered when 277,000 gallons of gasoline that had leaked from a ruptured pipe turned the Bellingham creek they were playing in into an inferno in June 1999.

The wrongful death lawsuit named Olympic, Equilon, Atlantic Richfield Co. and IMCO General Construction in Bellingham as defendants.

At a news conference this morning, the parents of Wade King and Stephen Tsiorvas promised they would use a good portion of the settlement to continue their battle for pipeline safety.

"This is a rough day for us. This is not a day that I celebrate," said Tsiorvas's mother, Katherine Dalen, who paused to caress a large photograph of her son's impish face before the news conference. "With some of this money — with a lot of this money — we'll keep on them.

"We are telling these companies that they cannot do this to our babies," she said.

Frank King, Wade's father, has become a leading advocate for pipeline safety. He has testified before Congress, and has fought tirelessly for new laws to hold the industry responsible, so far without success. The settlement, he says, will simply help finance his continuing battle.

"This has never been about money," King said. "This has been about change and we intend to carry on."

Paul Luvera, one of the team of attorneys representing the families, said the cash settlement in the wrongful death lawsuits is the largest of its kind involving a pipeline or oil refinery wrongful death lawsuit in Washington. Last year, his firm won $45 million for the families of workers killed in a refinery blast in Anacortes.

Lawrence Peck, the chairman of Olympic's board of directors, issued a statement acknowledging the settlement with the families and other claimants, although the details of those settlements were not made public.

"We again express our deepest sympathy to the families," Peck said. "We are mindful of the tragic circumstances that occurred that day, and are committed to ensuring that nothing resembling this incident ever happens again."

The two boys and another 18-year-old fisherman, Liam Wood, were in Whatcom Creek as hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline spewed from the ruptured pipeline. Wood was overcome by fumes and the boys were burned over 90 percent of their bodies when one of them flicked a fireplace lighter he'd been playing with. The blast sent a column of smoke that blackened the sky above Bellingham.

Wood's family has not sued.

Since then, the state Department of Ecology levied a record $7.8 million fine against Olympic Pipe Line, Houston-based Equilon, which at the time owned a majority of stock in Olympic, and IMCO Construction, which had been excavating around the pipeline.

Olympic agreed to pay $10 million to settle part of that fine and federal civil penalties stemming from the spill. Equilon and the other company, a Bellingham construction company that did excavation work near the pipeline, are contesting the fine.

A federal grand jury has also indicted the company on numerous environmental- and safety-related charges.

In recent weeks, the company sought to have any mention of the deaths omitted from its federal trial. This morning, Frank King called that attempt "abysmal."

The settlement comes less than two weeks before the lawsuits were scheduled for trial in Bellingham on April 22.

The lawsuits alleged that the deaths resulted from negligence on the part of the Renton-based pipeline company, its partner, Equilon Pipeline of Houston, and three current and former officials of the companies.

Both companies and two of the officials also are awaiting trial on federal criminal charges stemming from the rupture.

Late last month, Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Steven Mura denied a request by Olympic and other defendants to move the trial to Spokane. The defendants had argued that they couldn't get a fair trial in Whatcom County or other parts of Western Washington because of extensive news coverage about the case.