Dozens hurt as explosion rocks sugar refinery

[LaStrega]

Dozens of people were injured -- many of them critically -- in an explosion at a sugar refinery near Savannah, Georgia, tonight, a hospital official said. Ambulances were rushing the injured to area hospitals while rescuers searched for other victims.

Full article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/07/sugar.plant.explosion/index.html

[Wiley50]

1. Started in the bagging room. Sounds pretty bad

a cloud of powdered sugar in the air is as flammable as coal dust or sawdust.

Something must have ignited it and big fucking boom.

talk about burning carbs!

[krispos42]

2. Six people missing...

Oh, man. They even have a tugboat spraying it with river water!

[conscious evolution]

3. Holy shit

I grew up in Savannah and am familiar with the place.
Went to school with the owners daughter.Not a nice family at all.
Would not be surprised if this occurred due to lax safety and maintainance standards.The refinery is very very old.I have a friend who worked in maintainance there years ago and he was always bitchin about how screwed up the place was.And that was 10-15 years ago.I can't imagine it got any better there since.

[LaStrega]

4. OSHA dropped the ball ...

More than 300 dust explosions have killed more than 120 works in grain silos, sugar plants and food processing plants over the past three decades. Most are preventable by removing fine-grain dust as it builds up, experts say.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board concluded in a special report in 2006 that OSHA had no comprehensive regulation to prevent these explosions and their program "inadequately addresses dust explosion hazards."

The board recommended OSHA issue a comprehensive industrial standard for combustible dust.

OSHA did not issue a comprehensive industrial standard for combustible dust, as the board recommended. It did institute a national program under which sites would be inspected for various issues including combustible dust to make sure they complied with federal regulations, OSHA spokesman Mike Wald said.

The Port Wentworth site had not been inspected as part of that new program, Wald said. He said the last OSHA inspection of the facility was in June 2000, in response to an unspecified complaint, with no violations found.


per: http://www.startribune.com/nation/15437131.html