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Deaths Feared in N.C. Plant Explosion
Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 1/29/2003 2:40:28 PM
KINSTON, N.C. (AP) -- An explosion and fire rocked a pharmaceutical company Wednesday afternoon, and at least three people were critically injured, authorities said.
A man who lives near the West Pharmaceutical plant said debris flew in the air and the woods behind the plant were also on fire.
The explosion was reported at 1:27 p.m., said Lee Pearson of the Highway Patrol office in Williamston. The cause was not immediately known.
"We've got a lot of units out there," he said.
A spokeswoman at Lenoir Memorial Hospital said three people were at the hospital in critical condition with burns and more victims were expected.
Lee Edwards, who lives beside the plant, said debris from two 800-feet water towers flew in the air.
"All I can see I just the black smoke, just billowing up in the air. I mean, the whole sky is black," he said. "It exploded. It knocked me over."
West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. is a manufacturer of pharmaceutical delivery and medical devices. The company's Web site said its Kinston plant employs about 225 people.
A spokeswoman at the company's headquarters in Lionville, Pa., had no immediate comment.
Kinston is a city of about 24,000 in east-central North Carolina.
Explosion at N.C. Plant Injures Three
KINSTON, N.C. - An explosion and fire rocked a pharmaceutical company plant Wednesday afternoon. At least three people were critically injured and the city manager said some people could have been trapped in the wreckage.
A man who lives near the West Pharmaceutical plant said debris flew in the air and the woods behind the plant were also on fire.
Kinston City Manager Ralph Clark told CNN that it appeared "there are still a number of people trapped in the plant."
The explosion was reported at 1:27 p.m., said Lee Pearson of the Highway Patrol office in Williamston. The cause was not immediately known.
"We've got a lot of units out there," he said.
A spokeswoman at Lenoir Memorial Hospital said three people were at the hospital in critical condition with burns and more victims were expected. The University of North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill was also told to expect patients, but given no specifics.
Lee Edwards, who lives about a tenth of a mile from the plant, said debris from two 800-feet water towers flew in the air.
"All I can see I just the black smoke, just billowing up in the air. I mean, the whole sky is black," he said. "It exploded. It knocked me over."
"That whole building is gone. There's no saving any part of that building," he said.
Television aerial footage of showed flames and smoke still shooting up more than an hour after the fire broke out.
West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. is a manufacturer of pharmaceutical delivery and medical devices. The company's Web site said its Kinston plant employs about 225 people producing syringe plungers and IV supplies.
A spokeswoman at the company's headquarters in Lionville, Pa., had no immediate comment.
Kinston is a city of about 25,000 in east-central North Carolina.
That one area of the building was cleared to the joists. I see lots of ambulances. Parked. Doesn't look good.
Pray for the victims and potential victims...
“It almost felt like an earthquake was taking place,” said Hugh Pollock, headmaster of nearby Arendell Parrott Academy.
Thick, acrid smoke emanated from the building late into the night Wednesday. Light rain fell over the countryside, but flames persisted in the most damaged area of the plant.
Chief Deral Raynor of the North Lenoir Fire Department said about 130 people were at the plant when it exploded at 1:27 p.m. Wednesday. Authorities believed that all were accounted for Wednesday night, but cautioned they couldn’t be sure.
DASHING FOR SAFETY
Joseph Moore, an 18-year veteran molder, was working near the rear door when the explosion occurred. He was struck on the head by ceiling tiles and other debris, but wasn’t injured.
“I just shook that off, and grabbed somebody and got out as fast as I could,” he said at Immanuel Baptist Church, where factory workers went to meet their families.
Greg Smith, operations chief of the Kinston Public Safety Department, said the blast occurred in a four-story area of the factory where chemicals are mixed.
It was hard to measure the scope of the disaster, Smith said: “The damage is catastrophic to the building. The structure is so compromised that you just can’t enter and walk around.”
He said rubble — mostly chunks of concrete block and metal shards — was knee-deep in parts of the plant.
Amanda Nichols, who said she saw the explosion from nearby Lenoir Community College, told MSNBC TV that she saw parts of the roof flying through the air.
“It’s horrible. Half the building is gone,” she said. “We saw their employees running ... trying to get out of the building.”
“There was a man trapped on the outside of the building, hanging on for dear life. They finally got him down,” she added.
SEARCH FOR A CAUSE
Roger Dail, Lenoir County’s emergency services director, said officials asked plant workers to return to the scene Thursday to talk to investigators.
Eleven of the people injured were treated and released, according to hospital records compiled by the Red Cross. The victims were scattered among area hospitals and at least a half-dozen critically injured people were taken to the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill.
Smoke billows Wednesday from the factory explosion in Kinston, N.C., in which at least two people were killed. Authorities are investigating the cause. The plant has been cited for OSHA violations.
Carolyn Merritt, chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, said her team would talk to the workers to “try to determine what processes were going on and what chemicals were being used.”
The federal agency’s review could take from six months to a year. The FBI, State Bureau of Investigation, Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other agencies also sent investigators.
EARLIER OSHA VIOLATIONS
The factory makes syringe plungers and IV fitments and employs about 225 people in this city of 25,000 about 70 miles southeast of Raleigh.
West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., based in Lionville, Pa., near Philadelphia, makes pharmaceutical delivery and medical devices
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the plant was inspected in October, cited for numerous safety violations and fined about $10,000, which was reduced to about $9,000 early this month.
OSHA has inspected 443 facilities similar to the North Carolina plant and found an average of nearly six violations per site, compared with 15 at West Pharmaceutical.
The violations included problems with its electrical systems design, wiring and use; portable fire extinguishers; hazardous waste operations; and communications.
Since 1993, OSHA has inspected 443 similar facilities and found an average of nearly six violations per site, compared with 15 violations at West Pharmaceutical.
North Carolina is the site of one of the nation’s worst workplace disasters: Twenty-four employees and a delivery man died and 56 people were injured in a 1991 fire sparked when hydraulic fluid from a conveyor belt sprayed over a gas-fired chicken fryer at Roe’s Imperial Food Products plant in Hamlet.