Fri Jun 14, 2013 10:51pm EDT
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By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS, June 14 (Reuters) - An explosion at a nitrogen plant in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, killed at least one person and injured five on Friday, police said, one day after a deadly blast at another petrochemical plant about 10 miles (16 km) away.
Three of the five people injured in Friday's explosion at the CF Industries plant were hospitalized in critical condition. Two were taken to another medical facility and listed in stable condition, said Louisiana State Police trooper Jared Sandifer.
Sandifer confirmed one person died in the blast in Donaldsonville, a small port city on the Mississippi River, about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of New Orleans. Police had earlier said that a total of eight people might have been injured but revised the figure.
"Workers were filling some type of vessel using nitrogen. It was overpressurized, causing it to rupture, causing the injuries and fatality," Sandifer said. "Because it was nitrogen, there was no flame, just a rupture, like a balloon popping."
The CF Industries plant produces and ships about 5 million tons of nitrogen annually for agricultural and industrial uses, according to the company's website. The plant was built in the 1960s.
The explosion in Donaldsonville, a town of about 8,000 residents, followed one day by a blast at a Williams Olefins petrochemical plant about 10 miles north in Geismar that killed two people, one of whom died in a hospital Friday, and injured more than 100.
The Geismar blast sent a huge fireball and column of smoke over the plant along the Mississippi River, about 60 miles (100 km) from New Orleans. (Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Steve Gorman and Bill Trott)
(Adds comment, details and background)
By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS, June 14 (Reuters) - An explosion at a nitrogen plant in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, killed at least one person and injured five on Friday, police said, one day after a deadly blast at another petrochemical plant about 10 miles (16 km) away.
Three of the five people injured in Friday's explosion at the CF Industries plant were hospitalized in critical condition. Two were taken to another medical facility and listed in stable condition, said Louisiana State Police trooper Jared Sandifer.
Sandifer confirmed one person died in the blast in Donaldsonville, a small port city on the Mississippi River, about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of New Orleans. Police had earlier said that a total of eight people might have been injured but revised the figure.
"Workers were filling some type of vessel using nitrogen. It was overpressurized, causing it to rupture, causing the injuries and fatality," Sandifer said. "Because it was nitrogen, there was no flame, just a rupture, like a balloon popping."
The CF Industries plant produces and ships about 5 million tons of nitrogen annually for agricultural and industrial uses, according to the company's website. The plant was built in the 1960s.
The explosion in Donaldsonville, a town of about 8,000 residents, followed one day by a blast at a Williams Olefins petrochemical plant about 10 miles north in Geismar that killed two people, one of whom died in a hospital Friday, and injured more than 100.
The Geismar blast sent a huge fireball and column of smoke over the plant along the Mississippi River, about 60 miles (100 km) from New Orleans. (Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Steve Gorman and Bill Trott)
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