Savannah Sugar Plant Explodes
More than 30 people were seriously injured Thursday night when an explosion rocked a sugar refinery near Savannah. Labels: disasters, local news
The explosion occurred shortly before 7:30 p.m. in a back room of the Imperial Sugar Co. facility, but the cause of the blast was unknown, said Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police spokesman Sgt. Mike Wilson. Wilson said 38 were carried to hospitals with serious injuries, but no fatalities had been confirmed at 11 p.m.
Five people were still unaccounted for shortly after 11 p.m., Wilson said.
Of the 38 seriously injured, 12 were taken to Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctor's Hospital in Augusta for treatment of severe burns. Several dozen others had minor injuries.
The plant, known to locals as the Dixie Crystals factory, an area landmark, is in Port Wentworth, about seven miles outside Savannah, and near the Savannah River.
Emergency personnel spent the first hour pulling people out of the building, officials said, and struggled to stop the spread of the fire.
"There was fire all over the building," said Nakishya Hill, a machine operator who said she escaped from the third floor of the refinery, near the Savannah River.
"All I know is, I heard a loud boom and everything came down," said Hill, who was uninjured except for blisters on her elbow.
"When I got up, I went down and found a couple of people and we climbed out of there from the third floor to the first floor. Half of the floor was gone. The second floor was debris, the first floor was debris. All I could do when I got down was take off running," she said.
After the explosion, the Chatham County Emergency Management Agency activated its emergency and hazardous materials response plan.
More than 100 police and firefighters came to the scene, and a triage was set up to treat the wounded, who were loaded onto ambulances.
At about 9 p.m., firefighters were reporting trouble with water pressure and were attempting to tap into a 500,000-gallon water tank on the refinery's property. About two hours later, with water pressure problems continuing, fire officials decided to divert water from homes along I-95. Tugboats on the nearby Savannah River converged and turned water cannons onto the blaze.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Lynn said the river was shut down to ship traffic while the river was searched for possible victims.
"It's a large facility, and there is still a significant amount of fire," said Clayton Scott, assistant director of Chatham County Emergency Management Agency. He described the refinery as covering an area the size of a Super Wal-Mart.
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