ILLIOPOLIS - On the face of it, Bradford Bradshaw would be about the last person you'd expect to be rooting for a new chemical plant in Illiopolis.

On Saturday night, he attended an emotional candlelight service honoring the memory of his five co-workers who died after the Formosa Plastics Corp. plant was hit by a fiery explosion a year ago at 10:40 p.m. April 23.

Bradshaw escaped having his name added to the list of the dead by the merest fraction: burned over 60 percent of his body with his right eye destroyed, he went into kidney and congestive heart failure and was in a coma for 6½ weeks. His wife, Donna, said afterward that his face looked "like a marshmallow after you leave it in the fire too long."

And yet, reflecting back on the 12 months that now separate him from the disaster, Bradshaw, 48, thinks the greater good would be served by having those dozens of well-paying jobs back. He recalls co-workers, many related to each other and who had worked out there all of their lives, and says chemical plant paychecks sustained a lot of families.

"If it's rebuilt and run correctly and safely, then I don't have a problem with it, and I think a lot of people wouldn't have a problem with it," said Bradshaw. "For the sake of the economy and jobs, it would be good to rebuild."

But will a new plant emerge phoenixlike from the ashes of the old one? Bradshaw has heard countless on-again, off-again rumors and, overall, doesn't believe the prospects are bright. "They're giving the water rights back to the village of Illiopolis, and that's not a good sign," he added.

For years, the chemical plant's thirst for water was so great it had agreed to run the water treatment plant that also serves Illiopolis. In the wake of the explosion and subsequent shutdown of its activities, however, Formosa announced it was returning control of the water plant to the village; that handover is scheduled for May 1.

But company spokesman, Rob Thibault, said it was wrong to distill any negative conclusions from the water handover. "That was just an economic decision for us because we're not operating right now," he said.

Formosa hasn't decided whether to rebuild, but Thibault said such a decision was "months away" rather than years. He said evidence needed in making that decision, such as a full assessment of damage at the site, hadn't been gathered because the area was not cleared of debris.

"We've had to wait while the U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigation has been going on, and now we're awaiting permits from the Illinois EPA so we can do demolition," Thibault added.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich intervened in December to try and encourage Formosa, extending the boundaries of the Lincoln/Logan County Enterprise Zone to include the plant site. That opens up any rebuilding effort to sales tax exemptions and tax credits linked to job creation.

Thibault said Formosa knows how important the plant is to the local economy and says its output also is being missed by the company, which relied on certain types of plastics products, used in everything from flooring to traffic cones, produced only at Illiopolis. Formosa does run other plants in Louisiana, Delaware and Texas, and they've been able to pick up some of the slack. "But we're not filling the whole void left by the Illiopolis plant," said Thibault.

Illiopolis Mayor Allen Brickey, who was defeated in the April 5 election, has always been a big backer of rebuilding the plant but says villagers, once traumatized by the scale and tragedy of the explosion, aren't sitting around waiting to see what happens next.

"They're back to work, they're worried about summer Little League and school activities and day-to-day life," Brickey said. "They've been very resilient."

He said the next big development that will catch people's attention - other than the decision of whether to rebuild - are the results of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board probe into the explosion. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration already has completed its investigation and fined Formosa $300,000 for a series of safety violations. But it falls to the Washington, D.C.-based safety board to come up with a definitive answer as to why the accident happened.

The probe began in the days after the explosion and has continued since, with a final report still months away, the safety board says. Areas of concern, according to lead investigator Lisa Long, range from "human factors and use of deluge systems preventing or mitigating explosions" to "engineering design and layers of protection."

"We think our reports serve as road maps for safe operations," said Daniel Horowitz, director of public affairs for the board. "So, in the course of rebuilding, companies that follow our safety recommendations will be safer and operate with fewer accidents."

Staff writer Amy Hoak contributed to this story. Lead writer Tony Reid can be reached at treid@;herald-review.com or 421-7977.