Two workers killed and 11 injured in a factory explosion in Louisville, Kentucky

Members of the Louisville Metro Fire Department work to rescue a worker trapped under rubble at a construction site in Louisville, Kentucky, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

A deadly explosion at the Givaudan Sense Color factory killed two workers and injured 11 people Tuesday in the historic Clifton neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.

Givaudan produces food colorings, particularly the caramel coloring for soft drinks, a process that involves a wide variety of chemicals. The company’s largest shareholder is Bill Gates, who owns 14 percent of the company.

The explosion occurred just east of downtown Louisville at 3 p.m., shattering windows of nearby homes and cutting power to the area. Firefighters responded to a “hazardous materials incident” and issued an on-scene warning for a one-mile radius of the location.

Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill told local news that an evacuation order had been issued for homes in the two blocks surrounding the site because their windows were “blown out” and residents could not safely shelter in place.

The explosion at the Givaudan Sense Color factory was felt at least three miles away in Jeffersonville, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville.

At least one residential building in the Givaudan area has already been condemned due to the damage caused by the explosion, which forced residents to leave the property immediately. Speaking to local news, Shelby Dix said her family of four was told to “pack as much as they can, which is kind of hard when you have to live paycheck to paycheck to get a U-Haul to take all your stuff out. .”

Dix’s partner Craig Wilson described how the roof of the apartment building collapsed on him shortly after the explosion. Huge pieces of debris, some as large as cars, pierced the walls of apartments and destroyed power lines, setting the cars underneath on fire. “The whole apartment just got destroyed, all our cars just got destroyed,” Wilson said.

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Authorities warned residents not to touch the rubble, which is covered in a black, tar-like substance. According to Fire Chief O’Neill, a drone sent into the area to monitor air quality found no evidence of hazardous emissions being released into the air. Testing of sprinkler discharge at the site revealed no evidence of hazardous substances.

Several workers injured in the blast were sent to the University of Louisville Hospital, where they underwent decontamination for potentially hazardous materials and then were treated for blast injuries, thermal injuries and crush injuries from fallen debris, hospital officials said.

Austin Jaggers, a 29-year-old industrial maintenance technician, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, according to his family. He leaves behind a wife and a four-year-old daughter.

The second victim was found after midnight. Givaudan’s initial reports covered all of his employees; however, that was not the case. The company blamed a “miscommunication,” which led to firefighters re-entering the blast site despite the possibility of a secondary collapse of the facility, and carefully searching through the smoldering rubble for three and a half hours for a missing worker.

This isn’t the first fatal explosion at the plant, which has been operating in Clifton since 1948. Before the factory was acquired by Givaudan in 2021, the factory was owned by DD Williamson. In 2003, one worker was killed and 26 others injured when an 8-foot-tall food additive processing tank exploded because there was no pressure relief valve on the tank.

Shrapnel from the explosion struck an ammonia tank, leading to the release of an estimated 26,000 pounds of aqueous ammonia over a five-hour period, resulting in evacuations and a shelter-in-place order for 1,500 residents. The company was fined $10,000.

The facility, nestled in an upscale residential area, has been a problematic neighbor for decades. According to local records, the company sprayed caramel on houses on nearby Haldeman Street in 1965 and again in 1970.

In 1996, a DD Williamson tanker carrying 20,000 gallons of ammonium bisulfite ruptured, spilling the additive over nearby homes.

The company paid a total of $600,000 in civil penalties to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District in 2009 to resolve Clean Water Act violations.

In 2023, Givaudan was cited for failing to notify the district of unspecified excessive emissions, failing to timely submit annual compliance certifications and reports, and failing to comply with permit requirements related to monitoring, recordkeeping and inspections. The company only paid $7,500 in fines.

A Givaudan employee spoke to local media about her efforts to raise concerns about a sulfur dioxide leak with the company’s management. Angelita Oldham filed a report with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) earlier this year after her concerns were ignored by the company.

“We have a lot of SO₂ (sulfur dioxide) leaks that I had to raise my concerns about,” she said. “It wasn’t resolved. I don’t know why it’s leaking or why not, but I know I have to have my job, so you have to deal with it a little bit, and I did.

To date, no inspections or other actions at the plant have resulted from the employee’s complaint.

Due to an anomaly in local codes, the Givaudan Sense Color factory in Louisville is literally an island of industrial zones, surrounded by historic Victorian homes, small offices and businesses, and restaurants. Attempts by residents to have the facility relocated in the past were quashed. After the deadly explosion in 2003, the company spent $6.8 million to rebuild and expand the site’s factory.

Louisville City Council member Andrew Owen told local news that the facility’s zoning would not be legal and was at some point incorporated into the city’s zoning code. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg has said there are better locations in Louisville for this facility than in the Clifton area.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting local and state officials with the investigation into the incident, which is expected to take months.