Connecticut power plant explosion kills at least 5
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (MCT) — A devastating explosion that was heard and felt for miles destroyed a power plant Sunday morning as workers purged a natural gas piping system, killing at least five and injuring many more, emergency response officers said.
Homeowners miles away said the 11 a.m. EST explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems power plant created a shock wave so intense some mistakenly thought the central part of the state had experienced an earthquake.
A team of investigators from the federal government’s Chemical Safety Board, charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents, was scheduled to arrive at the plant Monday. A board spokesman said the team will look for the cause of the explosion, with particular emphasis on the procedure used at the Kleen Energy plant to purge, or clear the gas piping system.
The identities of those killed were not being released Sunday night, but family members confirmed the death of Raymond E. Dobratz, 58, a pipefitter from Old Saybrook, Conn.
“I lost my father today,” said his son, David Dobratz, 32.
David Dobratz, also a pipefitter, had worked on the plant but hadn’t been there recently. Raymond Dobratz had three children and five grandchildren and was a member of Connecticut Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 777, his son said.
Rescue officers worked throughout the day to prepare a casualty list, but the task was complicated by uncertainty over the number of workers on the site Sunday.
Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said at 5:30 p.m. EST there were five confirmed dead and as many as a dozen more injured, many suffering broken bones after being flung through the air. He said rescuers might search through the night for additional victims.
Hours after the shocking blast, which blew out windows and cracked foundations of neighboring houses, state police with specially trained dogs continued to poke through the rubble of twisted steel.
“There are bodies everywhere,” a witness said in the hours immediately after the explosion. Later in the afternoon rescue personnel said victims may still be buried in rubble, and officials later said they couldn’t say how many might be missing.
Middletown, Conn., Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano said there were “confirmed fatalities” but he did not know how many. He said there were probably no more than 50 construction workers on the site. But other estimates placed the number of workers at more than 100.
“It was a massive explosion” Santostefano said.
Eddie Reilly, president of the building trades council in Hartford, Conn., confirmed there were about 50 tradesmen on site Sunday morning.
The plant, which has been under construction for years, was nearing completion. It was designed to generate electricity by burning natural gas. Neighbors said they believed the explosion was the result of an operating test.
Santostefano said the explosion was related in some fashion to natural gas, but that the cause was still under investigation. He said the explosion appears to have occurred when operators attempted a “blow down” of natural gas pipelines, a procedure that involves the purging of gas pipelines.
Only three days ago, the federal Chemical Safety Board was considering what it called urgent recommendations to change national fuel gas codes to improve safety when gas pipes are being purged, or cleared of air during maintenance or installation of new piping.
The recommendations grew from the board’s ongoing federal investigation into the June 9, 2009, natural gas explosion at the ConAgra Slim Jim production plant in Garner, N.C., which caused four deaths, three critical life-threatening burn injuries and other injuries that sent 67 people to the hospital.
Board investigators determined the North Carolina explosion resulted from the accumulation of natural gas that had been purged indoors from a new 120-foot length of pipe during the startup of a new water heater in the plant that made beef-jerky products. During pipe-purging, workers feed pressurized gas into a pipe to displace air or other gases so only pure fuel gas remains in the piping when it is connected to an appliance such as a water heater or boiler.
The Middletown explosion is among the most serious in a year, board spokesman Daniel Horowitz said Sunday night. He said investigators will look closely at whether the purging process contributed to the explosion.
“This is an issue the board is very concerned about,” Horowitz said. “We don’t know if there’s any connection at this point.”
The Middletown power plant site, carved into a rocky bluff over a bend in the lower Connecticut River, consisted of numerous structures. But Santostefano said he believes the explosion occurred in the largest, a massive, square steel structure known as the power block building.
Klattenberg said the explosion blew out all sides of the power block building.
“Parts of the walls are just flapping in the wind,” Klattenberg said. Santostefano said “They are taking the building apart, piece by piece.
If they do find anybody, they would be under the rubble.” He said rescue workers were in “search and rescue mode.”
He said authorities believe many of those on the site at the time of the explosion worked for O&G Construction, the general contractor building the plant, which was more than 95 percent complete.
Emergency response personnel poured into the site after the explosion.
Helicopters were airlifting victims to area hospitals. Most were being taken to Middlesex Hospital in Middletown.
Eleven victims were taken to Middlesex Hospital. One suffered head injuries and was transferred to Hartford Hospital; two were treated for minor injuries in Middlesex Hospital’s emergency room and released.
Eight are still being treated for “multiple injuries” in the emergency room, said hospital spokesman Brian Albert. The injuries include broken bones, orthopedic injuries and bruises. One victim suffered a fractured pelvis, another has a broken leg and several have internal injuries, hospital officials said.
“We expect that we will be admitting two or three of those patients,” Albert said. Middlesex Hospital physician Jonathan Bankoff said the injuries were consistent with a blast; no burn victims were being treated at Middlesex.
Some of the victims were thrown 30 to 40 feet and suffered abdominal injuries and broken bones, Bankoff said at an afternoon press conference.
“The majority of our patients are telling that story,” he said.
Public records associated with the Kleen Energy plant permitting process show it was designed to generate electricity principally by burning natural gas to power a combined cycle turbine. Such turbines reuse waste heat produced during the power generation process, increasing the plant’s efficiency.
The plant operators proposed that when sufficient supplies of natural gas were not available, the plant would operate on low sulfur fuel oil.
The project was proposed mostly for the benefit of power consumers in the Middletown area, according to records. Kleen Energy Systems received approval to generate 520 megawatts — enough electricity for 364,000 to 520,000 households — in November 2002 from the Connecticut Siting Council. As of 2006, the company was petitioning the council to produce 620 megawatts. A megawatt is enough to serve 700 to 1,000 homes.
