Chemical plant explosions: Overview

Roishetta Ozane told a news reporter she can hear loud bangs and feel her house shake from explosions at a chemical plant near Lake Charles, Louisiana. She lives four miles away from the plant. Imagine what the impacts of those explosions do to the bodies of workers in the plant itself.

Chemical plant explosions can have devastating effects on workers. These explosions are mostly preventable, yet they occur far too often.

A 2021 explosion at Westlake Petrochemicals injured 23 people, as nola.com reported. Broken bones, burns and busted ear drums were among the injuries. That was the second explosion in just five months at a Westlake facility. Nola reviewed federal and state records, revealing what it called a “long track record of chemical spills, fires, air quality violations, safety inspections, and accidents that have burned and battered dozens of workers in Louisiana.”

According to an investigative project involving the Times-Picayne and New Orleans Advocate, published in a Nola.com article, the Westlake facilities have the potential to release enough toxic gas to harm more than 210,000 people. 

Workers and their families have filed lawsuits against the company in an effort to seek compensation for injuries resulting from chemical plant explosions. Three lawsuits sought damages of at least $1 million — a small number in comparison to the company’s $2 billion of income made in 2021 alone.

More spills and fires

Unfortunately, the Westlake explosions are far from alone. At the LyondellBasell facility in La Porte, TX, Two contractors were killed in July of 2021 during the unintentional release of 100,000 pounds of acetic acid. Thirty more were transported to medical facilities for evaluation or treatment.

A 2021 blast at a paint and polymers corporation killed one and injured eight others in Columbus, Ohio. One died and two were injured from an explosion at a West Virginia chemical plant in December of 2020. All told, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, has reported 16 chemical plant safety accidents from 1998 to 2021. More than 520 have been killed, 430 injured and more missing.

Other impacts

Employees aren’t the only ones impacted by plant explosions. In North Carolina, 6,500 people were under evacuation orders and Wake Forest University canceled classes when a fertilizer plant caught fire. Officials estimated that the fire could turn into one of the biggest explosions in U.S. history.

Though current codes require plants to have sprinklers and alarms, the facility had neither, says The Guardian. As the plant was built in 1939, it only had to be up to code for that year’s standards, and as a result, passed its yearly inspection. 

In Illinois, Plaintiffs Stephanie Mackey and Nick Migliore filed a class action lawsuit against Chemtool and The Lubrizol Corporation Friday in Winnebago County Circuit Court. The Lubrizol explosion class action lawsuit says that the companies are responsible for displacing and endangering hundreds of people. A fire at the Chemtool industrial lubricant plant burned for days near Rockford Illinois, creating a large plume visible on radar.

In yet another incident, windows and garage doors were blown out near a petrochemical plant explosion in Texas. Three schools near the plant were damaged, and community members are still concerned that children at schools near the plant continue to be at risk because of a “chemical catastrophe.”

In a 2019 Texas chemical plant explosion, one of the chief concerns was potential exposure to asbestos in the surrounding area, leading to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

More oversight needed

In April this year, Katherine Lemos, chair and CEO of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, called on regulatory agencies to do more to require companies to reduce the number and severity of explosions. “It is past time for regulators to fully recognize the hazards presented by reactive chemicals,” she said.

This call for regulations came after a review of a 2019 incident in Waukegan, Illinois, an explosion and fire that killed four workers. In that explosion, two incompatible chemicals were mixed, producing flammable hydrogen gas.

“In processes that rely on operators to gather and mix chemicals, it is critical that companies reduce the risk of human error by making it easy to do the job right and hard to do the job wrong,” Vincent says. “In this case, that could have been as simple as having written procedures that specify storing incompatible chemicals in separate areas and in different-colored containers.” The Chemical Safety Boards made multiple recommendations to OSHA and the EPA.

Plant explosions are preventable with appropriate safety measures. They can be deadly for workers and contractors, and they can cause serious injuries as well. Plant explosions can also cause environmental harm and do damage to properties. If you’ve been affected in any way by a plant explosion, you may be entitled to compensation.