Reports Cover Thirteen Serious Incidents in California, Indiana,
Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia
Washington, D.C., February 18, 2026 — The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) today released Volume 4 of its Incident Reports. The reports in the Volume detail 13 major chemical incidents that occurred across seven states — California, Indiana, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
The incidents resulted in two fatalities, 10 serious injuries, and over $1 billion in property damage. Each report provides a summary of the chemical event and its probable cause based on information provided to the CSB pursuant to the agency’s Accidental Release Reporting Rule.
Among the incidents covered in the new Volume is the January 30, 2023, fatal gas release at the Northrop Grumman Bacchus Propulsion Systems in Magna, Utah, that resulted in the deaths of two employees. Argon gas release was released in an enclosed area where the employees were working, and both were asphyxiated. The incident underscores the need for better protections for workers handling inert gases in confined spaces.
Volume 4 also examines two high-consequence incidents in 2025 that were caused by workers mistakenly disassembling the wrong equipment.
In the first incident, on February 1, 2025, contract workers at the PBF Energy Martinez Refinery in Martinez, California inadvertently opened a pipe flange on an active system during turnaround maintenance preparation, releasing and igniting flammable hydrocarbons. PBF estimated that the resulting explosion and fire caused approximately $924 million in property damage.
In the second incident, on May 20, 2025, a maintenance worker at Olin Corporation’s facility in Freeport, Texas, disassembled a rupture disc holder in an active chlorine system, releasing approximately 8,000 pounds of toxic chlorine gas. The incident caused one serious injury and resulted in $23 million in property damage. The incident also triggered a shelter-in-place order for the nearby community. Olin’s operations team had mistakenly isolated, cleared, and tagged a different but nearly identical piping system and did not isolate, clear, or tag the piping associated with the rupture disc that the maintenance worker disassembled.
The Olin and PBF Energy incidents are part of a concerning trend of serious chemical industry accidents linked to ineffective safety management systems governing the opening of equipment. They are similar to the October 10, 2024, incident at the PEMEX refinery in Deer Park, Texas, being investigated by the CSB, where workers mistakenly opened the wrong piping flange, releasing toxic hydrogen sulfide gas that resulted in two fatalities and 13 injuries. The CSB will release its final investigation report on the PEMEX Deer Park incident soon.
The CSB began publishing Incident Reports in January 2025, and is making them publicly available on the agency’s website on a regular basis. Altogether, the four volumes produced by the CSB to date collectively cover 81 serious chemical incidents in 31 states, involving 16 fatalities, 75 serious injuries, and over $4.5 billion in property damage. These summaries provide critical information to the public, industry, and emergency responders about serious chemical incidents and chemical safety issues.
The CSB is an independent, nonregulatory federal agency charged with investigating incidents and hazards that result, or may result, in the catastrophic release of extremely hazardous substances. The agency’s core mission activities include conducting incident investigations to identify root cause of releases; formulating preventive or mitigative recommendations based on investigation findings and advocating for their implementation; issuing reports containing the findings, conclusions, and recommendations arising from incident investigations; and conducting studies on chemical hazards.
The agency's board members are appointed by the President subject to Senate confirmation. The Board does not issue citations or fines but makes safety recommendations to companies, industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies such as OSHA and EPA.
Please visit our website, www.csb.gov. For more information, contact Director of External Affairs Hillary Cohen at [email protected].