A 25 year old oilfield worker from San Diego Texas is the third victim of a deadly oil well explosion in Burleson County that happened earlier this week, according to media reports.
The individual was part of a crew working at an oil well west of Bryan, Texas, when natural gas in the well ignited mid-day Wednesday.
The explosion had already claimed two.
While the cause of the ignition remain under investigation, it is believed that an unexpected amount of natural gas entered the well and ignited.
At the time of the incident, workover operations were being conducted.
The rate of casualties in the petroleum industry tops the chart.
During the years between 2003-2013, the percentage of the fatalities in this sector had risen 28% with a total of 1,200 deaths.
In more recent years, data from the CDC shows 63 fatalities via 977 active rigs in 2015, and 29 fatalities of 510 in 2016.
The data also shows 59% of fatalities between 2015-2016 fell into the industry group of well servicing.