Reporter-News Archives

Tuesday, April 14, 1998

Santa Anna man killed in Singapore

By ROY A. JONES II Regional Editor

SANTA ANNA - Billy Diaz' dreams of landing a good job on an off-shore drilling rig came true earlier this month, but ended tragically a few days later.

The 42-year-old Santa Anna native and Abilene Reporter-News carrier for six years died April 3 in a drilling rig accident in Singapore, Malaysia.

Funeral Mass was held Monday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Coleman with the Rev. Larry Cyr officiating. Burial was in Santa Anna Cemetery under direction of Henderson Funeral Home of Santa Anna.

Funeral director Don Henderson, a longtime friend, described the jovial Diaz as "a good ol' boy" and "an avid supporter of the Santa Anna High School football team," on which he and both his sons had played.

"Billy always wore a red shirt and bib overalls. I can't remember seeing him in anything else," Henderson said. "Everybody liked Billy. He was always the same."

Diaz' family chose to have him buried just like people will remember him - dressed in a red shirt and bib overalls, Henderson noted.

Diaz and members of his family had been the local Reporter-News carriers since February 1992 and he had also worked in the oil fields for many years as a driller and tool pusher.

His dream was to get a job with an off-shore drilling company that would give him the ability to travel and also earn top wages, Henderson said, adding that he was "really excited" about the job in Malaysia.

"He was to work 30 days then be off for 28. He hadn't been gone from here for a week when this happened," he added.

The accident is thought to have occurred on his first day on the job, before a barge as tall as a six-story building and longer than two football fields was pushed out to sea. The barge was loaded with the oil field pipe needed to drill the wells, which are often several miles deep.

Henderson said he understood that the barges have to be fumigated to kill rodents before pushing out to sea. The process involves packs which explode and blanket the interior of the barge with cyanide gas. After a period in which no one is allowed in the closed areas, ventilator fans come on and the deadly gas is cleared out of the vessel.

He said he understood Diaz and two other employees apparently entered a confined area of the barge before the cyanide gas had been removed and were overcome. The other two employees were able to escape, but Diaz could not, according to his employer, Smedvig Oil.

He was born Belen Diaz in Santa Anna and graduated from Santa Anna High School in 1973. He married Billy Rae Hipp in Comanche in October 1973.

He was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Coleman.

Survivors include his wife; two sons, Billy Joe and Bobby Ray; three grandsons; his parents, Bictorino and Juanita Vasquez Diaz of Santa Anna; three brothers, Bictorino Diaz Jr. of Beaumont, Benito Diaz of Santa Anna and Vincent Diaz of Denver City; and one sister, Barbara Cadena of Brownwood.