Marshals start probe into plant explosion

Middletown, Connecticut:  Fire marshals yesterday were preparing to start their investigation into a massive explosion that rocked an under-construction power plant where gas lines were being tested, killing at least five people.

A dozen or more others were hurt in Sunday's blast, which was so powerful it alarmed residents who heard the boom and felt tremors in their homes miles away from the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, about 20 miles south of Hartford.

The explosion left huge pieces of metal that once encased the plant peeling off its sides. A large swathe of the structure was blackened and surrounded by debris, but the building, its roof and its two smokestacks were still standing at the site overlooking the Connecticut River.

Search and rescue crews were combing through the debris from the damaged plant overnight but believed no one was missing amid the rubble, Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano said. The investigation into what caused the explosion was to begin yesterday morning, he said.

The US Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents, was mobilising a team of workers from Colorado and hoped to have them on the scene by midday yesterday, spokesman Daniel Horowitz said.

The nearly completed 620-megawatt plant is being built to produce energy primarily using natural gas, which accounts for about a fifth of the nation's electricity. Workers for the construction company, O&G Industries, were purging the gas line, clearing it of air, when the explosion occurred around 11.15am on Sunday, Santostefano said.

About 50 to 60 people were in the area at the time, he said. Hospital officials didn't immediately release the condition of the other injured people, whose wounds ranged from minor to very serious.

Safety

Kleen Energy Systems LLC began construction on the plant in February 2008. It had signed a capacity deal with Connecticut Light and Power for the electricity produced by the plant, which was scheduled to be completed by mid-2010.

Safety board investigators have done extensive work on the issue of gas line purging since an explosion last year at a factory in North Carolina killed four people. They have identified other explosions caused by workers who were unsafely venting gas lines inside buildings.