The displaced engineers, environmental safety workers and other employees were moved to trailers following this week's blaze on the second floor of the 55-year-old office building. It destroyed a large portion of the building that fronts the oil refinery along Loop 197 south.
Marathon investigators continued to look for the cause of the fire that broke out Monday, said Paul Sheppard, human resources director for Marathon Ashland's Texas City operations.
The Texas City Fire Department worked with Marathon's own fire crews to battle the blaze, which was believed to have started in a second-floor storage closet. But that had not yet been confirmed by investigators late Thursday.
The Marathon Ashland office building was one of the first to be built following the 1947 Texas City Disaster, when a ship carrying ammonium nitrate blew up in the harbor, killing nearly 600 people.
Company officials removed a plaque from the building's facade that was dedicated to the Marathon employees killed in the April 16, 1947 disaster. Executives were searching for a new location and ``appropriate'' placement for the memorial, Sheppard told the Texas City Sun in Friday's online edition.
He said historic photos and news clippings that lined the halls of the office building's first level appear to be salvageable. A quick check of the company's framed history in the first level indicated the mementos would be saved. Employees were coping with the losses, Sheppard said.
``Its tough having to work in those conditions, especially when you consider that many of these people have worked their entire careers in that building,'' he said.
