Fossil Fuels’ Deadly Summer and the Growing Resistance

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/environment/fossil-fuels-deadly-summer-and-growing-resistance



Editor’s Note: Tara Lohan is traveling across North America documenting communities impacted by energy development for a new AlterNet project, Hitting Home. Follow the trip on Facebook or follow Tara on Twitter.

In the dark, early morning hours of July 7, John and Diane Pitcock heard an explosion that shook the windows of their home in rural Doddridge County, West Virginia. Peering outside, they could see multiple fires burning on the ridgetop above their house where their neighbor had leased his land for gas drilling in the Marcellus shale.

They later learned that five workers from the site, run by Antero Resources, were flown to a burn unit in Pittsburgh. Two of the workers died from their injuries, 45-year-old Tommy Paxton and 37-year-old Jason Mearns.

The same week as Paxton’s death, Antero and Frontier Drilling settled a $12 million lawsuit with a worker who snapped his spinal cord on the job, completing a task he says was unsafe. The West Virginia Gazette reported:

During a deposition, Jason Ware, a safety coordinator with Antero, according to transcripts, said that in the 36 months he had worked at the rig, 25 to 30 work-related accidents occurred that resulted in broken bones or surgeries, not counting stitches.