Chemical Plant Explosion Kills 6, Injures 33

An explosion and fire Monday at a chemical plant killed six workers and injured 33 others, four of them critically, authorities said.

The explosion at the Albright & Wilson Americas Inc. plant occurred shortly before noon as workers began mixing chemicals to make a flame retardant, said Terry Martin, the company’s employee relations manager.

“My wife and I heard a rumble, looked out the window and saw a huge mushroom cloud--sort of like an atomic bomb--and we grabbed our cameras and photographed it,” said Joe Strickland, who lives several miles away.

The fire was quickly brought under control, Martin said. The cause of the explosion was under investigation. Workers were starting a procedure to blend the chemicals that is done in an enclosed mixing system, he said.

The plant, in an industrial area north of Charleston, produces phosphorus chemicals and phosphoric acid. The plant was evacuated and only firefighters and rescue workers were allowed near the scene.

At least three firefighters were among the injured. Ten of the injured were admitted to hospitals, officials said. The critically injured had burns over at least 50% of their bodies, said Scott Regan, a spokesman for the University of South Carolina Medical Center.

The majority of the injured suffered burns rather than chemical exposure, Martin said.

B. C. Burke, a plant nurse at MacAlloy Corp., half a mile from the plant, said: “It was more than a boom. It was like a bomb going off.”

The identities of the workers killed at the plant were not immediately released.

Albright & Wilson Americas Inc. is a subsidiary of Tenneco Corp. It employs 209 people, according to the State Development Board’s industrial directory.