Sugar Refinery Had Small Explosion Before Deadly Blast
Sugar Refinery Had Small Explosion Before Deadly Blast Save Email Print
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(February 18, 2008)--Sugar dust in safety equipment caused a small explosion at an Imperial Sugar refinery near Savannah, Ga. weeks before a similar but bigger blast killed nine workers there.

That's the finding of a federal investigator working the deadly Feb. 7 blast at the Port Wentworth, Ga. plant.

In that explosion, sugar dust beneath the plant's storage silos ignited.

Stephen Selk is investigations manager for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

He says he had few details about the previous explosion and couldn't say whether the earlier blast contributed to the Feb. 7 blast.

Selk told reporters that no one was injured in the earlier explosion.

The Chemical Safety Board investigates industrial accidents for the federal government and makes safety recommendations to industry and trade groups as well as federal regulators.

It has just begun looking into the refinery blast after criminal investigators determined Friday the explosion was accidental, caused by clouds of tiny sugar dust particles that, when airborne in confined spaces, can ignite like gunpowder.

Imperial Sugar is based in Sugar Land, Texas.
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