pat nickerson began digging through the wreckage looking for survivors. >> out of the corner of my eyebody on the ground. a guy named ryan rodriguez, and he was just kind of staring at me. he couldn't move because his face was so, you know, deformed and everything from the blast. and some, you know, bones and stuff that were, you know, protruding from his chin. >> what happened to him eventually? >> he died in the ambulance. >> 21-year-old eva rowe was driving to texas city to visit her parents, who worked in one of those trailers. >> i was at a gas station about 45 minutes away. some man inside said that the bp refinery had exploded. i called my mom. and my mom didn't answer, and that's not like my mom. she always answered. >> it was hours before eva rowe learned what had happened. >> a worker who actually worked at the plant collapsed to the floor crying, telling me that he was so sorry that he couldn't find my parents, but he'd been looking for them since the explosion happened. >> and so then i knew. >> eva rowe's parents were among the 15 who died that day in texas city. >> my par