Walnut Creek, Calif., Oil Refinery Points to Improved Safety Protocols.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News,  February, 2000  by Cuff, Denis

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Feb. 22--Pam Pofahl feels a knot tighten in her stomach whenever she drives past the smokestacks in Martinez and sees the Tosco refinery tower where a fire killed her husband and high school sweetheart, Ernie.

"I tried to rebuild my life here, but the memories are too close," Pofahl said in the Antioch house she is selling after living there since the birth of her first child 20 years ago.

She is moving to Idaho.

"I cannot take the view where you see the refinery," she said. "I can't help but think of Ernie and how that accident shouldn't have ...

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