LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An explosion felt for miles.
The explosion happened Tuesday afternoon at the Givaudan Sense Colour manufacturing plant in the 1900 block of Payne Street. The plant is known for producing caramel color in soft drinks.
Two people are dead and several were hospitalized following the explosion at the factory in Louisville’s Clifton neighborhood.
In an update just before 10 p.m., Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said "the Louisville Fire Department is searching the building and working with the company to see if all employees have been located."
Two employees had to be rescued from the building by the Louisville Fire Department.
"This is not only a fire run, this is a structural collapse run, and this is a hazardous materials run," said Louisville Fire Department Chief Brian O'Neill. "We don't precisely know yet exactly what types of leaks may happen or might be ongoing."
University of Louisville Chief Medical Officer Sr. Jason Smith said two people were in critical condition of the seven employees that were sent to UofL Hospital.
"There were a fair amount of burn injuries, a pretty significant amount of blast injuries as well, from the penetrating and blunt injuries from the force of the explosion, as well as some crush injury for some debris had fallen on the patient," said Dr. Smith.
Greenberg said homes in the vicinity were evacuated after the explosion. It is not yet known what chemicals may have been involved in the explosion or released into the air.
It led them to issue a one-mile shelter in place that was lifted just before 5 p.m.
Mike O'Leary lives right behind the plant and is the Clifton Neighborhood Association President, who was home at the time of the explosion.
"I was actually working and felt this incredible explosion. It was actually, I felt it in my chest, it was a pressure type thing. And my husband and I, like, what the heck is that I know our chimney, we lost some bricks on our chimney, but it was the pressure you felt. It was very surreal," said O'Leary.
Councilperson Andrew Owen went to the impacted neighborhoods and checked on the residents who had glass blown out from their windows and roofs torn up.
"People were clearly shaken," said Owen. "I knocked on doors of the neighbors who live next to the facility, went inside one of the houses, and one of the guys showed me a piece of metal about the size of an old cannonball that was laying on the floor of his kids bedroom that had come through the window."
Local leaders are applauding the fast response from emergency services, preventing more tragedy for the Clifton neighborhood.
"Something like this. Just demonstrates the teamwork here within this community and I think that's shown over and over again, between what EMS, what fire and what police do, the way they respond to things, their ability to get patients to us that we need to take care of, and the way that we can work with them to make sure that we do things like decontamination at the scene and bringing them here," Smith said.
Owen urged residents who have damage to their property to leave the debris where it is and contact 574-2117 to report.
"Not because the debris is contaminated, but because it will help investigators piece together the puzzle of what happened," he said on Facebook.
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