There are plenty of these oil tanks around the Palestine area. While the glory days of the East Texas Field are long over, there are still many wells producing, with new ones being drilled by small independents like Key.
These teens knew darn well what they were climbing. They are a common sight. And every parent with any brains would have warned their kids about climbing on them.
They are dangerous because of the fumes, and there have been cases where oil field workers have actually fallen into them and died.
But they don't explode on their own. Sometimes lightning will set one on fire, but that's not what happened here. One of the kids lit something.
I was reared in an oil company residential "camp", and, as Scouts, the only place we had to use for campsites was in the "oil patch". AFAIK, none of us even approached any of the production sites (wells -- where these sort of holding tanks are located).
- We were taught that the oil facilities did not belong to us -- therefore we should leave them alone. (Does any kid nowadays honor the principle of respecting other folks' property?)
- None of us smoked. (Little danger of us causing a fire/explosion even if we happened to pass close to a fume-filled tank.)
- We were well aware that the main reason for collecting oil and gas was that -- they burn!
I now have a producing well (complete with two holding/accumulating tanks) back in the woods of the 'south 40' of my place.. My grandkids have been taught to stay away from everything at the well site.
My guess is that these deceased kids' parents were way too permissive, and that they (like most modern parents seem to do) failed in their duty to teach their kids basic principles of right versus wrong.