By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON (Reuters) -Three workers filed a lawsuit in a Texas state court in Houston on Monday against Mexico’s national oil company Pemex for injuries they allege they received in a hydrogen sulfide release at a Deer Park, Texas, refinery on Thursday.
Two contractors were killed and 35 people treated for exposure to deadly hydrogen sulfide gas on Thursday afternoon, according to law enforcement officials.
A Pemex spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Sergio Antonio Olvera, Jonathan Martinez and Yoselyn Soto were working at the Pemex refinery in the Houston suburb of Deer Park when the gas was released, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday in state district court.
“Plaintiffs subsequently sustained injuries due to the leak,” the lawsuit said. “At the time and on the occasion in question, defendants committed acts and omissions, which collectively and separately constituted negligence.”
The plaintiffs seek damages in excess of $1 million, according to the lawsuit.
The suit was filed in the Harris County District Court in Houston by attorney Muhammad Aziz.
Geoffrey Adkinson, a spokesperson for Aziz’s law firm, said one of the plaintiffs remains bedridden and all three have experienced vomiting and respiratory symptoms.
In a statement on Monday, Pemex said the gas release came while maintenance was being performed on an amine regeneration unit at the refinery on Thursday. The gas release was stopped within three hours.
Hydrogen sulfide is a gas produced in refining. It can cause death if a heavy concentration is inhaled.