miner responds presently. but mr. paul has a history of responding to deadly incidents by suggesting they were unavoidable and that stricter regulation would not have prevented nor mitigated them. after the deepwater horizon explosion killed 11, mr. rand said he would deny rig workers the protection of additional safety rules, comparing the blast to the dotiki coal mine collapse that killed two kentucky miners in april. criticizing washington for trying to find out why both events happened. what i don t like from the president s administration is this sort of, you know, i ll put my boot heel on the throat of bp. i think that sounds really un-american in his criticism of business. i ve heard nothing from bp about not paying for the spill. and i think it s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it s always got to be someone s fault. instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen. i mean, we had a mining accident that was very tragic, and i ve met a lot of
something you don t ever expect to see. reporter: rescue swimmer kirk peterson was aboard the first coast guard helicopter sent to the scene. and on the way, reports grew more dire by the minute. started progressing to a rig explosion, a rig on fire. 160 people in the water with injuries and it kept growing and growing and growing. reporter: as they circled the blazing deepwater horizon, it was immediately apparent, peterson says, they were flying into a full-blown catastrophe. with the chopper running low on fuel, the 39-year-old father of two was hoisted down on to the nearby supply ship that had now become, by necessity, a hospital. hundreds of people were treated out here that night, in the dark, in what became a makeshift triage. some of the injuries were critical. 17 rig workers needed urgent care. in the black of night, lit only by the burning rig beside them, peterson loaded survivors into rescue baskets that were then hoisted into choppers and headed to hospitals. this
peterson was aboard the first coast guard helicopter sent to the scene. and on the way, reports grew more dire by the minute. started progressing to a rig explosion, a rig on fire. 160 people in the water with injuries and it kept growing and growing and growing. reporter: as they circled the blazing deepwater horizon, it was immediately apparent, peterson says, they were flying into a full-blown catastrophe. with the chopper running low on fuel, the 39-year-old father of two was hoisted down on to the nearby supply ship that had now become, by necessity, a hospital. hundreds of people were treated out here that night, in the dark, in what became a makeshift triage. some of the injuries were critical. 17 rig workers needed urgent care. in the black of night, lit only by the burning rig beside them, peterson loaded survivors into rescue baskets that were then hoisted into choppers and headed to hospitals. this is the first time i ve been out here since that night. reporter: he r
and on the way, reports grew more dire by the minute. started progressing to a rig explosion, a rig on fire. 160 people in the water with injuries and it kept growing and growing and growing. reporter: as they circled the blazing deepwater horizon, it was immediately apparent, peterson says, they were flying into a full-blown catastrophe. with the chopper running low on fuel, the 39-year-old father of two was hoisted down on to the nearby supply ship that had now become, by necessity, a hospital. hundreds of people were treated out here that night, in the dark, in what became a makeshift triage. some of the injuries were critical. 17 rig workers needed urgent care. in the black of night, lit only by the burning rig beside them, peterson loaded survivors into rescue baskets that were then hoisted into choppers and headed to hospitals. this is the first time i ve been out here since that night. reporter: he remembers working through the night, treating dozens more who were
the damage that we have done. hugh kaufman, senior policy analyst for the epa, thank for your insights on this tonight. thank you, sir. coming up, a reminder of the heroism in the early hours of the oil explosion. the story of a man who risked his life to rescue injured rig workers in the hours after the horrific end of deepwater horizon. and later, the end to the pundit palin spin. it turns out she doesn t have the midas touch when it comes to endorsing candidates. nationwide insurance, i m all ears.