SABINE PASS, Texas — Brave members of a Houston-area rescue team saved multiple lives after a fire, two explosions, and chaos broke out at a Sabine Pass shipyard.
The Houston Coast Guard was alerted about an emergency 100 miles away from them on Thursday shortly before 1 p.m. Nine workers in Sabine Pass were trapped on a burning oil rig after a fire broke out.
Crews loaded into a Coast Guard helicopter and set off on what would become a life-saving mission.
Members of the rescue team said they knew this mission was different and they had to act fast to save lives.
“This is the first time I've ever, I speak for everyone I think on this one, that we were going to a ship that was on fire, and it was a little different,” Daniel Chase, pilot, said. “Just a little more challenging as far as where we were going to pick up [sic] the people on the jacking rig, and how we were going to get them off the rig safely with what was going on.”
On their way to the mission, the situation became that much more pressing.
Related: Oil rig still smoldering day after Coast Guard helicopter rescues 9 workers at Sabine Pass shipyard
“When we were getting close to the actual rig, there was an explosion,” Chase said. “We didn't know, what, if there was going to be more explosions. We didn't know what the fire was going to do."
Members of the rescue crew believe their training and confidence in their fellow teammates prepared them for this one-of-a-kind mission.
"There's always a little bit of nerves that come into it," Christopher Collins, flight mechanic, said. "But we, I mean, we train all the time. We train and we're always talking about different situations that we might see. Although we were nervous, I think we all have enough confidence in each other's abilities that we could set the nervousness aside and just focus on the mission."
While there were other teams in the area, crew members said it was ultimately up to them to save the trapped workers.
"Another helicopter that was in the area did not have any hoist capability,” James Connor, pilot, said. “So, we were really the only option to get those nine people off the jack rig."
Rescue crew members said they had to adapt to be able to buckle down and get the job done. Vince Neiman was a part of Thursday's crew and has been a rescue swimmer for 10 years.
“That definitely was way different than anything I've seen in my years of being a rescue swimmer,” Neiman said. “But, when it comes down to it, you just adapt and get the job done.”
Thanks to the bravery of the rescue team, one by one, the nine workers were airlifted off the rig and taken to safety.
The Port Arthur Fire Department is monitoring the ongoing situation and waiting for the fire to burn itself out. Fire crews expect it to be out soon.