Today, the coal gasification plant I work at had an explosion, Killing two men. These men were Union Boilermakers. They were tightening a flanged head on the reactor, when the leak ignited.The leak had occured over the weekend, and been purged with nitrogen to keep it from igniting. The nitrogen had to be removed for them to work in this area, wich allowed oxygen to return to the leak. Two members of my crew were working on the floor directly below them, and told me that they heard the impact wrench start to work before the explosion. My crew made it from the 7th floor down to safety, with a minor scrape and temporary deafness. The explosion was like a small bomb, strong enough that I felt the shock and vibration on the ground in my fab shop. It was flollowed by a deafening roar that was so loud, I could not hear myself screaming to the rest of my crew to go to the evacuation point. Once my men were out of the structure and added to the head count, I was told there were only two missing. These were my freinds.
The older one had less than 200 days till retiring. We were joking around this morning, and he told me I needed to buy traing wheels with my motorcycle. This was one of the few people that I honestly respect. A union man, a father, a grandfather, and a friend.
The younger of the two hit even closer to me. He was a Marine, and we shared mostly the same veiws on life, the deterioration of society, politics and the constitution. These are things we discussed on an almost daily basis. We had just finnished talking about the bike I was going to get, and discussing where we could meet in the mornings to ride in together. He had just finnished the break in miles for his new KTM motorcycle last week, and took it in friday for its first service.
He was paged on the intercom and answered it in my shop. He told his partner he was in the arcade, which is what they named my shop, because we are always playing cards and video games on my PC during breaks, and said he would be right up.
As he walked out of my shop, he told me that we would talk later.
10 minutes later my friends died in the explosion.
These men were like family to me and several others in the plant.

If anyone reads this, please do me this one request.As you are looking into your monitor Safe from harm, remember that two men died today while trying to ensure the electricity enjoyed by over 350,000 customers did not get interupted. Then remember that many more just like them, are still working in power houses around the world. Then PLEASE say a prayer to whatever diety you worship, to take care of the dead and protect the living.
Thank You