Nexen oilsands plant explosion victim ID'd as Drew Foster, 52 - Action News
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Nexen oilsands plant explosion victim ID'd as Drew Foster, 52

The maintenance worker killed in an explosion at Nexen's Long Lake facility in northern Alberta has been identified as 52-year-old Drew Foster.

Maintenance worker described as 'an amazing father and husband' on GoFundMe page

Drew Foster, 52, shown with his family, was killed Friday in the explosion at the Nexen Long Lake facility in northern Alberta. (Gofundme)

The maintenance worker killed in an explosion atNexen'sLong Lake facility Friday in northern Alberta has been identified as 52-year-old Drew Foster.

A GoFundMepage set up to help Foster'sfamily describes himas caring and "an amazing father and husband" who was always smiling orlaughing.
The explosion in the gas compression building in the hydrocracker unit at Nexen's Long Lake facility also severely injured another worker. (Courtesy of Nexen)

According to the page,Foster and his wifehad been together for 25 years and helped anyone they could.

The family is asking for privacy and is not speaking about the incident, according to a family friend.

Foster died when he and another worker were refitting the valves on a compressor in the gas compression building in thehydrocrackerunit Friday afternoon.
Dave Williams, 30, has been identified as the worker injured in an explosion at the Nexen Long Lake project in the Alberta oilsands. (Dave Williams/Facebook)

The second worker has been identified as Dave Williams, 30, a journeyman millwright from Cape Breton, N.S.

Williams was sent to hospital in critical condition with severe burns. Heis now in the burn unit at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton.

Williams's cousin, KellyMacEachern, said hesustained third-degree burns to 90 per cent of the front of his body. She saidthe family has been told that Williams dug himself out of the rubble of the explosion.

Williams was not supposed to be working on Friday, she said, but "went in for an extra shift."

CEO Fang Zhi called the explosion "one of the darkest days in Nexen history."

A stop-work order is in place for the facility, about 75 kilometressouth of FortMcMurray, outside hamlet ofAnzac.

Nexen, the Alberta Energy Regulator, and Occupational Health and Safety are all investigating how the explosion occurred.