Kyle Rooke, 1968-2011
His name was Kyle Rooke. He was 42, a native of Drummond, Idaho.
He was working on a gas drilling rig near Pinedale, Wyo., Wednesday when the drill exploded, severely burning him.
By the time emergency crews reached him, he was dead.
It looks like he ran a self-named carpentry company in Idaho. I don’t know for sure, but if it was like a lot of small construction firms, he probably did contracting during the warm months and did indoor renovations or another job in the winter.
Rooke worked as a roughneck for QEP Resources on its gas drills in Wyoming, after working 18 years as a carpenter. My guess is that carpentry stopped paying the bills when the housing market crashed. A man’s gotta find work somewhere. I doubt he was on that gas rig because he loved the job.
“He loved the outdoors, especially hunting and fishing. He loved to spend time with his family,” the obituary reads.
Rooke’s wife, Brenda, just lost her mother (and Brenda somehow became Beverly), Wilma Gean Overlin, last month — dead at 71. First her mother, then her husband. Double tragedies.
Rooke was born in Washington on Sept. 9, 1968. Now he’s dead.
To quote from Oleg Steinhauer’s book The Tourist:
It had been years since he’d faced this, but even back then, when he saw death more often, he’d never gotten used to it. The sudden heft. The fast cooling. The fluids that leaked from the body. . . The quick cessation of consciousness, of everything that person — no matter how despicable or virtuous — had experienced. . . A whole world had suddenly ceased to exist. In a snap, right in front of him. That was death.
A whole world, gone, in an instant.
How do I write that? How do I explain it, as something more than a statistic? How can I tell Rooke’s story right?
The statistics story are easy. Energy industry deaths aren’t overly surprising in the state of Wyoming, which is at the top or near the top each year in the number of workplace fatalities. Before too long, I’ll likely be writing a story tabulating workplace deaths from 2010. Did the number go up? Did it go down?
Yet if I leave this to a numbers story, I’ll have failed as a journalist and as someone who values life and respects death.
Rooke’s story should be told. Both to remember his life and death and as a way to illustrate the dangers faced by others who do similar work.
Life matters. So does death.
I’ll see what I can do.
Despatches | {Wyoming} 
Jeromy
As to your question about how to write about this mans death. Please consider reporting why it happened as best you can understand.
When I worked out there for Chevron in the 90’s, as a Petroleum Engineer, there were checks and balances in place to prevent accidents. I think it is important that everyone follow up and understand how this happened. Please do not consider this as acceptable because it is not.
No doubt the Operating Company, associated vendors, Wyoming O&G commission and even BLM (if this was on Federal land) will do their own investigations but the press needs to let everyone know how the process works. Were there any recent safety violations on this drillling location? When was the last time this Rig was inspected by regulatory agencies? Has the operator or drilling contractor been fined in the past for unsafe practices?
If there was a way to prevent this accident using safer procedures then lets hope that regulatory agencies, operating companies and the press are willing identify them, step up and do the right thing.
Bill Crockett
Bill, thanks for your comment. You raise some good points. I know the company and all the relevant agencies will be conducting investigations, but I’ll push forward as well.
I’ll keep moving forward on this and hopefully we’ll both find out more.
by reading the obituary in the teton valley news where this man was from you GOT HIS WIFES NAME WRONG CORRECT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or you could be helpful and tell me what it actually is so I can correct it. It’s unfortunate they got it wrong.
Jeremy,
Nothing we do as journalists is more important than to make the sincere effort to tell the story of a human loss, its causes, consequences and price. Good luck.
Kevin Woster
kyle rooke was, still iss my father he’s my hero the part where you have that one little line that says ” Rooke was born in washington on september 9th 1968 now he’s dead thats one hell of a way to put that. you should rethink the way you write shit down that makes me sick.
Hi this goes to the man who wrote this article.u say how can you write about this mans life well write about things that made him who he was i may not have known him but thats all the more reasons suggesting you should describe him more and be more respectful and say facts instead of basically guessing thats what he did in his life i know i dont want my obituary written like this one nor do i want one written by you.