A Georgia handyman arrived in North Dakota three years ago. After two years in the Bakken oil field, he bought a truck and opened his own company. His business grew with the oil boom, expanding to four trucks and a dozen employees, and doing work for at least five different oil companies, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
On January 15, 2015, a fire broke out as he or one of his men worked in an enclosed shed near a heater tank that separates oil into various components. A battery-operated drill which wasn’t supposed to be in the confined space might have sparked the blaze. The owner died and two of his workers suffered burns. Colleagues said he had plenty of training, three years of intense experience.