Explosion at Kentucky business injures 11 workers, shatters windows in surrounding neighborhood

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals after an explosion Tuesday at a Louisville, Kentucky, plant caused a partial collapse of the building and blew out windows in nearby homes and businesses.

The explosion occurred around 3 p.m. at Givaudan Sense Colour, which produces colorings for food and drinks. Firefighters rescued and evacuated many people from the building, including some with life-threatening injuries, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a statement Tuesday night.

Greenberg said officials have accounted for everyone who was working at the plant at the time.

The cause was under investigation. Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant and they “initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred.”

Patrick Livers lives in a neighborhood immediately across the railroad tracks from the plant. He was at work when his mother, who had picked up his children from school and was bringing them home, called to say his home had been damaged by the explosion.

“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Then she showed me the video. I was like, ’Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said.

Livers said no one was home at the time. He said the explosion blew out windows up and down his street.

“The house is still standing. It’s just structural damage. If it was on a wall, it’s on the floor,” he said. “All the neighbors’ windows busted out, doors blown in. It looked like a small tornado went off inside the house.”

Steve Parobek was at work when the blast blew out the kitchen window in his apartment a block from the plant. He arrived home and found his cat safe and used two pizza boxes and some duct tape to cover his window as temperatures dropped steadily Tuesday night.

A Givaudan spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday night. No one answered the phone at the company’s Louisville office, and a man who answered at the Port Washington, Wisconsin, office declined to comment.

The University of Louisville Hospital treated seven of the injured and two were in critical condition, said Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer for University of Louisville Health. Hospital officials activated decontamination procedures for the victims, a process that involves removing their clothing and all the chemicals on them and then taking them for evaluation and treatment, Smith said.

Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill said air monitoring began immediately after the explosion and “nothing at this point has ever shown any type of chemical problems in the air in this entire region.” O’Neill also said that fire officials “don’t precisely know yet exactly what types of leaks may happen or may be ongoing,” but he urged residents to stay calm.

The Louisville Fire Department was leading the investigation as of Tuesday night with help from state and federal partners. A reconstruction team from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was headed to Louisville to help determine the cause of the explosion.

In April 2003, an explosion at the same location killed a worker at a caramel-coloring plant owned by D.D. Williamson & Co. Givaudan acquired the plant from D.D. Williamson in 2021.

Federal investigators determined a pressure relief valve on a tank had been removed when the company moved the tank to its Louisville plant in 1989. The tank exploded because there was no relief valve, according to a report from the Chemical Safety Board.

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Associated Press journalists John Raby and Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report.