A self-described "unremarkable" equipment operator at an Exxon refinery in New Jersey, Charlie Morecraft was working overtime just after midnight on August 8, 1980, in order to make a little extra vacation money.

Asked to drive out to change some manifold "blanks" on an octane-enhancing pipeline, Charlie noticed a leak as he started to open up the pipe. He disregarded safety regulations and continued his work, when a surge of the chemical gushed out of the pipe and into his face. As usual, he wasn't wearing safety glasses, and was temporarily blinded.

As he ran past his still-running truck (another safety violation) to reach a safety shower, the fumes ignited and the area blew up. He eventually found a puddle of water to extinguish his burning clothing and flesh, but not before 50 percent of his body was burned.

"The pain was excruciating," Morecraft told a Michigan audience of construction workers and contractor employees on Nov. 6. "I wish I had a nickel for every time I wished I would die. But it didn't have to happen. It shouldn't have happened. And that's why I'm here today."

Morecraft, now a motivational speaker, was a guest of Skanska USA Building, Centerline Electric and Danboise Mechanical. He spoke at Schoolcraft College in Livonia to an audience of about 270.

"I'm the guy who always thought that safety meetings were for sleeping," he said. "Safety equipment was for wimps. I believed that you could do your job and take shortcuts without any problems. Of course I believed that an accident could never, ever happen to me. And if an accident did ever happen, the only person who would be hurt was me, not my wife or my kids."

Morecraft said he joked with his wife that if an accident ever did happen to him, she would be lucky, because "I was worth a helluva lot more dead than alive. I believed all of that until August 8,1980. All the myths I ever held about safety literally went up in smoke."

The EMT driver who reached him first, a friend of Morecroft's, cried when she saw his burned body. Morecroft went into cardiac arrest several times in the hours after the accident. It took him five years to recover, with thoughts of suicide a constant companion. During his rehabilitation, his daughters, age 10 and 13, lost out on five years of a normal relationship, forced to worry about whether their dad would live or die. One daughter became anorexic and he and his wife eventually divorced.

"I devastated my family. I lived five years in hell, because I didn't understand that the person who was ultimately responsible for my safety and my life wasn't my mother and father, wasn't the safety guy, wasn't the guy working next to me, it was me. I just didn't accept it."

Morecroft acknowledged that the company and the government have a responsibility to provide a safe and secure workspace. "But stuff happens all the time," he said. "People screw up, equipment fails. Somehow we get it into our head that we're covered because we work for a company with very complex safety procedures and all kinds of safety equipment. Somehow we think that because there's a yellow line down the middle of the road, that no one's going to swerve across. Well I'm here to tell you that's wrong. I've got $1.7 million worth of medical bills to tell you, that's dead wrong."

He said the night of his accident "I wasn't a defenseless victim. I could have worn my safety glasses. I could have shut off my truck. I could have followed procedures. Could have. Should have. But I didn't."

He said the work culture disdained safety equipment and procedures. He said listening to the older guys led him down the road to "shortcuts and recklessness. These guys weren't ready to accept responsibility for their own lives, much less mine," he said. "If only I had the guts not to give a damn about what other people thought," Morecraft said. "God helps those who accept responsibility for their own lives."

Morecroft said his life lessons extend beyond the workplace, such as wearing seatbelts in case the other driver does cross the yellow line, and wearing safety glasses when mowing the lawn or using power tools.

"If you won't work safely for you, work safely for your family," Morecroft said. "You don't want to bring people down with you. If you become involved in a major accident, you turn children into premature adults, wives into widows, mothers into weeping old women and fathers into broken down old men. What price will your family pay for your mistake? Please, please, don't destroy the people you love. If you can't be safe for you, do it for your loved ones."

BURNED OVER 50 percent of his body in a refinery accident, Charlie Morecraft shows two body parts that wouldn't have been burned - his arms - if he had rolled down the sleeves of his fireproof shirt.