On Friday evening just before 7 at the CF Industries nitrogen plant in Donaldsville, Louisiana, a container partly filled with nitrogen explosively ruptured apart. The nitrogen container rupture took the life of one worker and injured at least 5 other people, 3 of them critically. Our industrial accident attorneys note that on the day before, a horrific explosion and fire at the Williams Olefins Chemical Plant in Geismar, Louisiana, just about 30 miles away from CF Industries, claimed the lives of two workers and injured more than 70 other people.
Authorities said a nitrogen container they were filling from a truck failed, causing the deadly rupture of the container at CF Industries on Friday. CF Industries is reportedly one of the world’s largest producers of nitrogen fertilizer products and also produces ammonia products. Our industrial accident attorneys point out that the company had been fined $150,000 by OSHA in 2000 for safety violations after an explosion and fire killed 3 people. (Source: Azhar Fateh, WVLA TV, 6/14/13)
The cause of the tragic blast and fire at the Williams Olefins Chemical Plant has not yet been announced. The three men who lost their lives in the two tragic Louisiana industrial accidents were:
- Scott Thrower of St. Amant,
- Zachary Green of Hammond, and
- At CF Industries, Ronald “Rocky” Morris of Belle Rose.
The industrial accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC express their condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the three deceased workers. We wish the injured victims of the blasts rapid and complete recoveries from their injuries.
The Explosive Hazards of Ammonia and Nitrogen Producers and Products
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that on the whole, the safety record of chemical and industrial plants is about twice as good as for other U.S. workplaces. This is fortunate, as U.S. coastlines and other areas are dotted with chemical plants and refineries. And rural areas sometimes host large fertilizer plants like the one that exploded so tragically in West, Texas just weeks ago.
The industrial accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC emphasize that the highly reactive properties of nitrogen and ammonia that make them so effective as cleansers and catalytic agents for other chemical reactions also make them highly combustible under the right conditions. Though BLS data indicates that serious industrial accidents at the plants that work with these substances are rare, when they do occur, the results can be catastrophic to workers, their families, and the communities in which the plants reside.
Click the link to learn more about industrial hazards as revealed by the tragic West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion.
Read More About Second Louisiana Plant Explosion in Two Days Kills Third Worker…