Report: Inadequate Safety Controls Led to Fatal N.C. Plant Explosion

By | August 2, 2007

Inadequate safety controls for chemical reaction hazards led to an explosion at a North Carolina chemical plant that killed one worker and injured 14 others last year in Morganton, federal safety investigators said Tuesday.

“The sorts of safety practices and policies, if they had been there, we feel this incident would have never happened,” said Jim Lay, lead investigator with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

On Jan. 31., 2006, employees at the Synthron Inc. plant were making a paint additive in a 1,500-gallon reactor when chemical vapor escaped, creating a subsequent vapor cloud explosion and fires, according to the agency’s report.

The blast leveled much of the plant, blew out windows several blocks away, and injured all 12 employees on duty and some passers-by. The plant’s facilities maintenance head, Curtis “Butch” Brackett, died after suffering severe burns.

The plant was about 75 miles northwest of Charlotte.

In its final report, the board said the reactor “lacked basic safeguards to prevent, detect and mitigate runaway reactions, and that essential safety management practices were not in place.”

The agency also said ineffective corporate oversight by Synthron’s parent company, Protex International, contributed to the likelihood and severity of the accident.

“We feel Protex dropped the ball,” Lay said. “There had been tremendous turnover at the company. (Employees) didn’t have the experience or training needed.”

Morganton, a city of about 17,000 people, hasn’t fully recovered from the accident, Mayor Mel Cohen said.

“It’s a tragic loss for the family and other citizens. We as a city, tax payers, have lost funds that we had spent on fighting that fire and explosion,” Cohen said. “It’s sad to lose jobs, and the way we lost it was even more sad.”

Synthron manufactured acrylic polymers for use as paint and coating additives. The accident occurred when plant managers attempted to fulfill an order for acrylic polymer that exceeded the normal batch size for the product. Instead of making two smaller batches, managers decided to make a single, larger batch, the report said.

The board recommended that Protex establish a program to follow “good industry safety practices” at all its remaining U.S. facilities.

Calls to Synthron were not immediately returned Tuesday. Following the accident, the company filed for bankruptcy and the facility in Morganton has not been rebuilt. A spokesman for Protex, which is based in France, didn’t immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

In addition to the Synthron facility, which was located in Burke County, Protex operates chemical-related businesses in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Florida.

On the Net:

U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board: http://www.chemsafety.gov/

Protex International: http://www.protex-intl.com/protex-intl/

Topics USA North Carolina Chemicals

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