All four who died were reported to be employees of Deep South, according to a spokesman for the refinery, LyondellBasell, quoted in a Reuters report.

The crane’s dark red boom collapsed about 1:30pm Friday 18 July on top of another crane and on an employee catering hut. Photographs taken by a news helicopter show the crane’s upper structure and boom torn off at the slew ring. The crane did not appear to land on any process equipment, although the other crane tore a hole in the roof of a tank. Reports suggest that the crane was in the process of being erected for lifting during a refinery shutdown.

Deep South has released a statement:

“Our primary concern now is the identification of injured employees and the notification of families. We are taking every measure to ensure that the injured employees receive the best possible medical attention. Our thoughts and prayers are with our employees and their loved ones.

“At this point, we have few details on what actually happened and we are trying to gather information. We will use this information to conduct an investigation to determine the root cause, correct it and ensure that this type of tragedy does not occur again.

“We will cooperate fully with all investigations that may arise from this tragic incident. We will provide information as we gather and verify it. In the meantime, we ask for you prayers and patience in this difficult time.

Louisiana-based Deep South designs and builds speciality heavy-lift lattice-boom cranes for refinery shutdowns that it calls VersaCrane. The collapsed crane appears to be a VersaCrane, but the company statement did not specify which model of crane collapsed.

On May 31 a similar crane, a custom-made lattice-boom crawler crane, collapsed at the Black Thunder Mine in Wyoming as it was making a lift. The crane, a Transi-Lift, is designed, built and operated by Lampson International. The US Mine Safety and Health Administration has been investigating the incident, but has not yet released its report. Lampson has declined to comment publicly until the report is issued.