Dallas Plant Explosion Lawyer | Industrial Injury Attorney

A plant explosion can destroy your body, your livelihood, and your future in seconds. If you or someone you love was injured in an industrial explosion in Dallas, you’re facing medical bills that climb by the hour, lost income you can’t afford to lose, and pain that won’t quit. You need someone who will fight for what you’re owed.

Varghese Summersett represents victims of workplace explosions, industrial accidents, and catastrophic injuries across Dallas. We know how plant owners and insurance companies try to minimize payouts after devastating events. We don’t let them.

What Causes Plant Explosions in Dallas?

Industrial explosions don’t just happen. They result from specific failures, negligence, and preventable dangers. Understanding what caused your explosion matters because it determines who can be held responsible and what compensation you can recover.

Chemical plants, manufacturing facilities, oil refineries, and industrial sites across Dallas County create environments where one mistake can trigger disaster. Common causes include:

Equipment failure. Boilers, pressure vessels, and storage tanks that aren’t properly maintained can rupture without warning. Corroded pipes leak flammable gases. Faulty valves fail to release dangerous pressure. When equipment breaks down, explosions follow.

Human error. Workers who aren’t properly trained make critical mistakes. Supervisors who cut corners to meet deadlines create deadly conditions. A single oversight in mixing chemicals or monitoring gauges can turn a routine shift into a catastrophe.

Safety violations. Many explosions happen because companies ignore federal safety standards. Missing ventilation systems let combustible dust accumulate. Inadequate fire suppression equipment fails when it’s needed most. Facilities that skip required inspections put profit over people.

Lack of protective measures. Plants without proper explosion-proof electrical systems, gas detection monitors, or emergency shutdown procedures leave workers exposed to preventable risks. When safety systems don’t exist or aren’t maintained, workers pay the price.

Who Can Be Held Liable After a Dallas Plant Explosion?

Multiple parties may share responsibility for your injuries. Texas law allows you to pursue compensation from anyone whose negligence contributed to the explosion.

Your employer. While workers’ compensation typically provides limited benefits regardless of fault, you may be able to file a lawsuit against your employer if they intentionally removed safety devices, failed to carry required workers’ compensation insurance, or committed fraud to deny your claim.

Third-party contractors. If maintenance companies, equipment installers, or other contractors created unsafe conditions that led to the explosion, they can be sued separately from your workers’ compensation claim. Their negligence isn’t protected by workers’ compensation immunity.

Equipment manufacturers. Defective machinery, faulty pressure relief valves, or inadequate safety warnings can make manufacturers liable under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 82.001. If a product defect caused or worsened the explosion, the manufacturer must answer for it.

Property owners. When explosions occur at facilities owned by a different entity than your direct employer, the property owner may be liable for failing to maintain safe premises or for allowing dangerous conditions to persist.

Chemical suppliers. Companies that supply hazardous materials have a duty to provide proper warnings, handling instructions, and safety data. If they failed to do so and that failure contributed to the explosion, they can be held accountable.

Types of Compensation Available After a Plant Explosion

An explosion doesn’t just cause immediate injuries. It creates a cascade of losses that can last years or a lifetime. Texas law allows you to recover multiple types of damages.

Medical Expenses

Explosion injuries require extensive treatment. Burn victims need skin grafts, wound care, and reconstructive surgery. Blast injuries damage internal organs and require emergency intervention. Traumatic brain injuries demand long-term rehabilitation. You can recover compensation for:

Emergency room treatment and hospitalization, surgery and anesthesia, medications and medical equipment, physical therapy and rehabilitation, psychological counseling for trauma and PTSD, and all future medical care your injuries will require. Don’t accept a settlement that only covers what you’ve spent so far. Your future medical needs must be calculated and included.

Lost Income and Earning Capacity

Severe injuries prevent you from returning to work, sometimes permanently. You’re entitled to recover the wages you’ve lost since the accident and the income you’ll lose in the future. This includes lost benefits, bonuses, retirement contributions, and any other job-related compensation.

If you can’t return to your previous career, we calculate the difference between what you would have earned and what you can earn now. For workers left permanently disabled, this loss can reach into the millions over a lifetime.

Pain and Suffering

No amount of money erases what you’ve been through, but Texas law recognizes that your injuries cause real suffering beyond economic loss. Severe burns cause excruciating pain. Permanent scarring affects your self-image and relationships. Living with disability changes everything. You deserve compensation for physical pain, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement and scarring, and the permanent changes to your quality of life.

Punitive Damages

When a company’s conduct goes beyond ordinary negligence and rises to the level of gross negligence or malice, Texas allows juries to award punitive damages designed to punish the wrongdoer. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 41.003, if an employer knew about dangerous conditions but consciously disregarded worker safety, punitive damages may apply. These aren’t about compensating you. They’re about sending a message that putting workers in danger has consequences.

Common Injuries From Plant Explosions

Explosions cause some of the most severe injuries we see. The force of the blast, flying debris, intense heat, and toxic fumes create multiple trauma simultaneously.

Severe burns. Second and third-degree burns destroy skin, muscle, and tissue. Victims face months in burn units, multiple skin graft surgeries, and permanent scarring. Burn injuries often lead to lifelong complications including infection, loss of mobility, and the need for ongoing reconstructive procedures.

Traumatic brain injuries. The blast wave from an explosion causes the brain to slam against the skull. Even workers who don’t hit their heads suffer concussions and brain damage. TBIs result in cognitive problems, memory loss, personality changes, and permanent disability.

Amputations. Flying metal, collapsing structures, and the force of explosions sever limbs or crush them beyond repair. Workers lose hands, arms, legs, and feet. Those who survive face a lifetime of adaptation, prosthetics, and loss of independence.

Spinal cord injuries. Explosions throw workers through the air, slam them into walls, or cause structures to collapse on top of them. Spinal cord damage results in paralysis, loss of sensation, chronic pain, and the need for lifelong medical care and assistance.

Respiratory damage. Inhaling superheated air, toxic fumes, or chemical vapors destroys lung tissue. Victims develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, chemical pneumonitis, and permanent breathing problems. Some require ventilators to survive.

Hearing loss and vision damage. The pressure wave from explosions ruptures eardrums and causes permanent hearing loss or tinnitus. Flying debris and intense heat damage eyes, causing partial or complete blindness.

Crush injuries. When walls collapse, equipment falls, or structures give way, workers suffer crushed bones, internal bleeding, and organ damage. Crush injuries often require amputation to prevent death from toxins released by dying tissue.

How Fault and Liability Work in Texas Industrial Accidents

Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001. This means you can recover damages even if you were partially at fault, as long as your responsibility doesn’t exceed 50 percent.

Insurance companies and defense lawyers will try to blame you. They’ll claim you weren’t wearing proper protective equipment, that you ignored safety procedures, or that you should have known better. Don’t fall for it.

Even if you made a mistake, that doesn’t absolve the company of responsibility for creating dangerous conditions. If the plant had proper safety measures in place, your error wouldn’t have led to an explosion. Our job is to prove that the negligence of others was the primary cause of your injuries.

Your compensation gets reduced by your percentage of fault. If you’re found 20 percent responsible, your award is reduced by 20 percent. But if you’re more than 50 percent at fault, you recover nothing. This is why fighting their attempts to shift blame matters so much.

What Your Case May Be Worth

Every explosion case is different, but certain factors consistently affect settlement and verdict values. The severity of your injuries matters most. Catastrophic injuries that require lifelong care and prevent you from working again command higher compensation than injuries that heal.

The degree of the defendant’s fault also matters. When companies knowingly violated safety regulations or ignored repeated warnings about dangerous conditions, juries get angry. That anger translates to larger awards.

Your age and earning capacity at the time of injury affect lost wage calculations. A 30-year-old engineer with decades of high earnings ahead has a larger economic loss than someone near retirement.

The insurance coverage and assets of responsible parties limit what can actually be collected. A small contractor may carry minimal insurance, while a major corporation has deeper pockets. We identify every possible source of recovery to maximize what you receive.

One key factor driving value is evidence that the company knew about the danger. Internal emails discussing cost savings from skipping safety upgrades, inspection reports showing violations that weren’t fixed, and testimony from other workers about repeated complaints all strengthen your case significantly.

Why Insurance Companies Fight Plant Explosion Claims

Insurance companies know that catastrophic injury cases involve massive potential payouts. They will spend hundreds of thousands defending the case to avoid paying millions in damages. Understanding their tactics prepares you for what’s coming.

They hire experts to minimize your injuries. Insurance defense doctors examine you for 20 minutes and claim your injuries aren’t as severe as your treating physicians say. These hired guns write reports designed to reduce settlement value, not to provide honest medical opinions.

They try to blame you. Defense lawyers scrutinize your work history, safety training records, and actions before the explosion to find anything they can use against you. They’ll argue you were negligent, distracted, or violated company policy.

They delay. Insurance companies know that injured workers face mounting bills and desperate financial situations. They drag cases out hoping you’ll accept a lowball settlement just to get something, anything, to pay your bills. Don’t let financial pressure force you into a bad deal.

They challenge causation. Defense lawyers argue that your injuries weren’t caused by the explosion, that you had pre-existing conditions, or that something else is responsible for your medical problems. They want to avoid paying for every penny of treatment they can deny.

They make early settlement offers. Before you know the full extent of your injuries and before you’ve hired an attorney, insurance adjusters offer quick money to make your case go away. These early offers always undervalue your claim. Once you accept and sign a release, you can’t come back for more when you discover your injuries are worse than you thought.

This is why you need an experienced Dallas plant explosion lawyer who knows how to fight insurance companies. We’ve seen every tactic they use, and we know how to counter them.

The Claims Process and Timeline After an Explosion

Understanding what happens after an explosion helps you protect your rights and avoid mistakes that damage your case.

Immediate Aftermath

Get medical attention immediately, even if you don’t think you’re seriously injured. Adrenaline masks pain and some injuries don’t show symptoms right away. Having medical records from the day of the accident creates documentation that insurance companies can’t dispute.

Report the explosion to your employer if you’re physically able. Texas workers’ compensation requires notice within 30 days, but reporting immediately prevents disputes about when and how the injury occurred.

Document everything. Take photos of the scene if possible. Get names and contact information for witnesses. Write down everything you remember about what happened while the details are fresh.

Workers’ Compensation Claim

If your employer carries workers’ compensation insurance, file a claim immediately. Workers’ comp provides medical treatment and partial wage replacement without requiring proof of fault. You’re entitled to these benefits regardless of who caused the explosion.

Workers’ compensation pays two-thirds of your average weekly wage while you’re unable to work, covers all reasonable medical treatment related to your injury, and provides compensation for permanent impairment. However, workers’ comp doesn’t compensate you for pain and suffering or punitive damages, and the wage replacement is typically much less than you were earning.

Filing a workers’ comp claim doesn’t prevent you from pursuing a personal injury lawsuit against third parties whose negligence caused the explosion. You can pursue both simultaneously.

Third-Party Lawsuit

After a plant explosion, investigate who, beyond your direct employer, may be liable. This investigation takes time and expertise. Experienced Dallas plant explosion lawyers review maintenance records, safety inspection reports, equipment specifications, chemical safety data sheets, and witness statements to identify all responsible parties.

Texas gives you two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. This deadline is absolute. Miss it and you lose your right to sue, no matter how strong your case.

Don’t wait until year two to find a Dallas plant explosion lawyer. Investigation takes months. Building a strong case requires time. The sooner we get started, the better we can prove your case and maximize your recovery.

How Long Cases Take

Simple cases with clear liability and cooperative insurance companies might settle within months. Complex explosion cases involving multiple defendants, disputed fault, and catastrophic injuries often take one to three years or longer.

Several factors affect timeline. The severity of your injuries matters because we can’t settle until you’ve reached maximum medical improvement and we know the full extent of your losses. Cases involving fatalities or permanent disability take longer than injuries that heal.

The number of defendants matters too. Coordinating depositions, discovery, and negotiations with multiple insurance companies and defense lawyers slows things down. So does litigation in general. If defendants refuse reasonable settlement offers and force a trial, add another year or more.

While waiting is frustrating, rushing to settle before knowing your full damages costs you money. A few extra months of patience can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional recovery.

What to Expect From Varghese Summersett

We don’t handle explosion cases from our desks. Our attorneys and investigators go to the accident site. We examine equipment, review safety records, interview witnesses, and work with engineering experts to reconstruct what happened.

We retain qualified experts. Explosion cases require testimony from safety engineers, metallurgists, medical specialists, and accident reconstruction experts. We hire the best because weak expert testimony loses cases.

We calculate your full damages. That means working with economists to value lost future earnings, with life care planners to project lifetime medical costs, and with vocational experts to assess your ability to work. Insurance companies want to minimize these numbers. We prove what they’re really worth.

We fight. Plant owners and insurance companies have teams of lawyers. They count on you being intimidated, overwhelmed, and desperate. We level the field. Our trial lawyers don’t back down, and insurance companies know it.

We keep you informed. You’ll have direct access to your attorney, not just a paralegal or assistant. We explain what’s happening in language you understand, not legal jargon designed to confuse.

You don’t pay unless we win. Personal injury cases are handled on contingency, meaning we don’t collect attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you. This allows injured workers to get quality legal representation without upfront costs.

Varghese Summersett has offices across Texas, including Dallas. Our personal injury team has recovered millions for injured workers and their families. When you’re hurt in a plant explosion, every hour matters. Get the compensation you deserve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue if the explosion was partly my fault?

Yes, as long as you were less than 51 percent responsible. Texas comparative negligence law allows you to recover damages even if you share some fault. Your compensation is reduced by your percentage of responsibility, but you don’t lose everything just because you made a mistake.

What if my employer doesn’t have workers’ compensation insurance?

You can file a personal injury lawsuit directly against your employer. Unlike cases where workers’ comp applies, you can recover full damages including pain and suffering. You also don’t have to prove fault in a non-subscriber case. The employer is strictly liable for workplace injuries.

How long do I have to file a lawsuit?

Texas gives you two years from the date of injury. This deadline is strict. However, don’t wait until the deadline approaches. Evidence disappears, witnesses forget details, and building a strong case takes time. Contact an attorney as soon as possible after the explosion.

What if the plant where I was injured closed or filed bankruptcy?

Other parties may still be liable. Equipment manufacturers, maintenance contractors, chemical suppliers, and parent companies may have contributed to the explosion. An experienced attorney identifies all potential defendants and sources of recovery, even when the primary employer is no longer operating.

Can my family sue if I died in the explosion?

Yes. Texas law allows certain family members to file wrongful death claims when someone is killed due to another party’s negligence. Surviving spouses, children, and parents can recover compensation for loss of companionship, mental anguish, and financial support. Contact a wrongful death attorney to discuss your options.