The death toll in an explosion and fire that gutted a Phillips Petroleum Co. polyethylene plant rose to 19 with the death of an injured worker, and an expert high-rise search and rappeling team Thursday looked for the bodies of five workers still missing.
The team from Roco Corp. of Baton Rouge, La., was lifted by booms to the top of the 200-foot-tall finishing building, where plastics produced at the refinery were transformed from powder into pellets.One victim, whose name was not released, died Tuesday at Pasadena General Hospital of injuries sustained in the Oct. 23 blast.
"We can't get people into those buildings because they're unstable and inaccessible," Phillips spokesman George Minter said of the area around the finishing building.