The bodies of five men missing after an Oklahoma oil and gas rig exploded have been found, authorities said Tuesday.
Seventeen people escaped the explosion and fire Monday morning at a rig outside Quinton, in Pittsburg County about 70 miles from the Arkansas line. Three of the five men worked for the rig’s owner, Patterson-UTI Energy of Houston, the company said.
Authorities said the five men were found at around 2 p.m. (3 p.m. ET) Tuesday in the area where they were presumed to have been working, a rig floor office room called the “dog house.”
They were identified as Roger Cunningham of Seminole, Oklahoma; Josh Ray, 35, of Fort Worth, Texas; Cody Risk, 26, of Wellington, Colorado; Matt Smith, 29, of McAlester, Oklahoma; and Parker Waldridge of Crescent, Oklahoma.
“At this moment, no one knows with certainty what happened, and it would be unwise to speculate,” Andy Hendricks, president and chief executive of Patterson-UTI, said Tuesday. He said well-control experts and emergency responders would conduct a full investigation once the scene was fully contained.
“We want to learn from this,” Hendricks said. “We don’t want this to happen again for anybody in our industry.”
Pittsburg County Emergency Management Director Kevin Enloe said that the incident was under control and that “there is no danger to any of the residents around the well.”