NEW CUMBERLAND, W.Va. -- Bobby Shields was only 27 when he died 15 years ago. Now his parents are reliving their pain all over again.
Nancy and Robert Shields still live down the street from AL Solutions, the chemical plant where a fireball burned their son to death in 1995. A fire and explosion Thursday -- the plant's third fatal accident in 15 years -- killed two workers. While state and federal investigators covered the scene Friday, the Shieldses were flooded by memories of Bobby.
"Like it was our son all over again," said Nancy Shields, 65. "It's something you never get over, no matter what. It's part of you that's gone. I wish they would just close it down or do inspecting every so often."
A four-person team from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board arrived in this town of 1,200, expanding the West Virginia State Fire Marshal's search for the fire's cause. Local police were helping interview employees and awaiting autopsy results from the state's Chief Medical Examiner, said Lester Skinner, chief of the town's six-person police force.
The blast killed Jeffery Scott Fish, 39, and James E. Fish, 38, two of three brothers who lived within sight of the Shieldses' home in three white houses side by side, less than half a mile from AL Solutions.
The Fish family and company officials declined comment.
Dave Williams, a contractor doing electrical work at the plant, was treated and released from a Pittsburgh hospital, Skinner said. A third plant employee, Steven Swain, 27, of Weirton, was in the intensive care unit of UPMC Mercy, Uptown, the chief said.
There were no lingering fumes from the explosion, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which sent an investigator. Neither the state Department of Environmental Protection nor the Hancock County sheriff's department asked the EPA to conduct long-term air monitoring, so it won't, agency spokesman David Sternberg said.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent investigators from its Charleston office. The plant, formerly called Jamegy Inc., received $12,200 in fines after the 1995 death and another death in 2006.
That history has neighbors in the town angry and confused about what to do with the plant, the largest employer in this riverside town less than 45 miles west of Pittsburgh. Many have long wanted it closed, but they rely on it because jobs are scarce. Skinner said the plant employs 23 people.
"Quit Killing or injuring Our Town People" read a sign -- black letters on 3-foot-tall white paper with black paint sprayed around the edges -- that a neighbor put up on the street that leads to the plant. "Shut Down This Plant. Prayers to the families of Robert, Mark, Jimmy + Scott, and all the others Injured," it continued.
The Shieldses got a settlement for their son's death after suing, but money doesn't make up for their loss, Nancy Shields said. Her husband shed a tear yesterday when noting his son was their only boy of four children. The toughest times are Christmas and Thanksgiving when the family gets together, his mother said.
"We need the work, but still we don't need to lose our families," she said.
