We're reporters who investigated a power plant accident that burned five people to death – and discovered what the company knew beforehand that could have prevented it. Ask us anything.

Has there been any backlash for you as a result of this story?

Hey there. Thanks for starting us off. No, there hasn't been much backlash. Most of our readers welcomed the in-depth analysis of the accident.

As a student of journalism myself, I'm impressed with the level of detail you put into the report! I found your diagrams very illuminating.

Thank you! Our editors pushed pretty hard for those diagrams. The technical aspects of this accident are pretty tough to understand (we had to talk to a lot of different people to get a clear understanding) and we wanted readers to not struggle while reading.

Oh god, I just searched up a photo of slag. Absolutely horrifying. My question is, would there have been any way to save the workers, even if say a medical team were there? In the article it states that it was a pool of the lava-like substance 6 inches deep and 40 feet wide, seems like it'd be almost impossible to somehow grab the workers out? Plus if it's lava like then it's also extremely viscous, would it make it even more difficult to pull the workers out?

Records show the responding medical team did fight hard despite the impossible situation. Two died on the scene, but the three that died later were pulled out, wrapped with burn blankets, and taken to the hospital.

Is there any chance in hell somebody will be held personally responsible?

Right now OSHA is investigating the accident and would decide who is responsible. If they find someone responsible, they could refer it for criminal prosecution. But the investigation will take some time since the accident was so severe, probably around 6 months.

I haven't worked in this industry but I have worked around lots large equipment and sites where safety is a major concern. I am baffled by what happened here. This seems like such a blatantly dangerous undertaking I'm amazed it happened once let alone "hundreds of times".

If you're working near a crane with a properly secured load, you still never stand or work near that suspended load, no matter how well secured or light it may be. How did anyone think that working under thousands of gallons of liquid slag was reasonable? Oh, and the only thing holding it up was a mass of solidified slag?

Forget the safety guidelines, where was the common sense?

A lot of people we interviewed asked the very same question.

Those graphics were very helpful. Its a shame that basic LOTO procedures were not followed. Why were both contractors in the area at the same time?

Sounds like the two contractors were doing separate tasks. One actually specialized in water blasting and was trying to blast out the blockage at the bottom of the tank. The second was a clean up crew that would pull out/clear out smaller pieces of debris as they were broken up.

“Mom, help me,” he begged, steam hissing in the background. “Mom, I’m burning.”

:(

Horrible event, great reporting and coverage. I especially liked the web friendly layout and the infographic. Who did the infographic? I'd like to know more about the production of such an effective bit of media...

I did the infographic, mostly hand coded with the help of some javascript libraries. I explain a bit more on /r/webdev

https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/6vc8gv/how_do_you_do_a_diagram_animation_when_scrolling/

/u/IAmAMods could you please flair these people up?

yes please, I think I already have some but /u/jcapriel and /u/KatMcGrory could use some

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Call a reporter.

The revenue vs. profit comparison was rather intriguing. How much of the cost-cutting was attributed to corner-cutting of safety procedures?

It's not exactly clear. We do know from public testimony in 2013 that a $40 million shortfall from the recession was recovered through 200 layoffs (8% of the company). But many of these cuts are in broad categories in the budget records.

Not a question. A huge thank you from half way around the world, for keeping journalism alive.

A broad question: What keeps you going?

My dog is my support system. http://imgur.com/a/WNJv2

How long was your investigation?

Do you have to 'prove' to your editors your case, much like a lawyer, before they publish to reduce the chance of libel/legal action?

Have you ever encountered having stories rejected as they are no longer 'topical' and if so, how do you move on from that, feeling perhaps justice wasn't served?

The accident happened on June 29. We started working on a first story that published two weeks after. Then this story published a monthish after that.

Our editor was actually a strong proponent for this story. We do send the story to our lawyer and make sure she doesn't have any issues with the story.

I honestly haven't had an issue with stories getting rejected. My editor is pretty great and open to ideas. (He will shutdown bad ideas though, and generally rightfully so)

I'm a high school journalism teacher. What advice can you offer about investigative journalism? What was the hardest part of this report?

Advice: Be persistent. Keep digging.

Hardest part: it was all pretty hard to be honest. Getting in touch with experts who knew about this specific technology, building the graphic in a easy to understand way, analyzing all of the relevant records to find useful information.

What would you say was the most dangerous part of investigating this story? Also, were you exposed to the slag at all?

Not much danger and no exposure to slag for us. Just lots of interviews, analyzing records, and reviewing power engineering textbooks.

Is there any possibility of something like this happening else where in the states at similar power facilities? Is anyone looking into any other power facilities?

From Kat above:

One of the first things we learned is that power plants are generally very safe. The procedure that caused the June 29 accident was specific to coal-fired power plants with a certain type of boiler (called a wet-bottom boiler). There aren't that many of them left.

If a human being negligently caused the death of five people they would likely go to prison for many years and possibly until they died. Do you think it's possible for a corporation to receive a similar punishment?

To me it seems like human beings are responsible for this tragedy but they will hide behind the corporation to avoid individual responsibility. Do you see signs of this happening?

It's not yet clear if an investigation will find someone at fault. OSHA is conducting an investigation but it typically takes 6 months for a case with this many deaths.

When preventable accident cases happen, who gets the payout after all the legal stuff?

Depends if lawsuits are filed and what the court finds, it's different on a case by case basis

What do you think the lack of union representation had to do with contributing to the accident? Did workers protest over the reintroduction of this practice and weren't heard due to a lack of a union?

There is union representation actually. They filed a grievance in 2015 about this kind of work. We dive a little into that in the story.

How do you plan on enjoying what's left of your life before you get assassinated in a "burglary"?

I don't think that's a worry, journalists publish investigations like this all the time. There was a worry that reporters were being bugged back in the 80s (maybe 70s) when the paper published the investigation on Scientology. The office would actually get swept for bugs back then.

Would you consider this company the Benghazi of power plants?

I'm not quite sure what this means

Jeez, people think they're important enough to start AMAs for everything. What's next? "Hey Reddit, I put my toilet paper under, not over. Ask me anything!"

Blasphemy. Toliet paper should never go under.