Pumped for NaNoWriMo

I'm sorry but the word NaNoWriMo just doesn't thrill me. It's hard to get pumped for something with that name. They originators should have gone with just NaNo. Nevertheless, just like the last few years (here and here) I'm getting ready for National Novel Writing Month and starting to think of stories. I ran into one today.

I got a tour of a very large refinery near San Francisco and heard about a death that occurred there last year. Hearing about someone dying at a refinery isn't that remarkable. It's dangerous work. I had to take an 8 hour class just to get access. My company had someone die on the job just last year. It happens, it sucks, we drive on. The article I found on this particular death leans toward a fitness related death.

But, this story had some oddities to it. First, it was his wife who initially reported him missing when neither his truck nor his company truck nor the man himself came home. They started a plant wide search and found his truck in the contractors parking lot, and his company truck near the lubricants unit. They couldn't find the man though.

Three days later after an extensive search they found the man dead in a tank/vessel (one of these huge gasoline tanks) that was up a large hill and almost a mile from his truck. He had no reason to go into that vessel and he would have known no contractors are allowed to go into a vessel of that type alone or without the proper precautionary measures in place.

Finally, he left his radio and his phone in his truck. I think this is the oddest part. I was just a visitor today and had my phone with me the whole time. These contractors live with their radios.

There is a lot here for a story. There's the potential for big mean oil company in the bay area against a potential whistle blower. There's death and confusion. There's so much that could be made of this story. Sad part is that it's true. I wonder what really happened.