2008 Georgia Sugar Refinery Explosion - Explosion and Emergency Response

Explosion and Emergency Response

The explosion occurred at 7:00 p.m. local time in what was initially believed to be a room where sugar was bagged by workers. Witnesses from across the Savannah River in South Carolina reported seeing flames shoot up several stories high. There were 112 employees on-site at the time. The explosion occurred in the center of the refinery, where bagging and storage facilities were fed completed product by a network of elevators and conveyor belts. Many of the buildings here were six to eight stories high with narrow gaps in between.

Ambulances responded to the scene from across twelve counties, and firefighters from three. The United States Coast Guard closed off the river in the area, and a firefighting tug boat was used to douse the resulting fire from the river while a helicopter was used to search the river for anyone who may have been thrown into it by the blast. Refinery workers were brought in to assist with search and rescue operations as emergency services personnel were unfamiliar with the plant's layout.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency alerted local hospitals to prepare for up to 100 casualties. A doctor at nearby Memorial Health hospital described patients arriving at an emergency triage as varying in condition from suffering minor burns to their hands to having received 80-90% burns, with many in critical condition, and one with 95% burns. The victims' ages ranged from 18 to 50. Many victims were placed in artificial comas because they were on life support systems. Eight were transported by helicopter to the specialized Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia, about an hour away. Five of those injured later died there while receiving treatment. As of June 24, 2008 four remained there, three of whom are in critical condition.

A church close to the refinery was used as a point for families seeking information on relatives employed at the facility to congregate. So many people turned up that police requested that each family send only one representative. At the close of the day of the explosion six people were missing with no confirmed deaths. Overnight, several deep-seated fires were uncovered and firefighting continued the next day, at which time most of the three-mile (5 km) stretch of river that had previously been closed was reopened without restriction, although a patrol remained in place to enforce a safety zone. The river restrictions delayed one outgoing vessel and two incoming ones. There was also a minor oil spill originating from equipment at the refinery's unoccupied and rarely used dock.

The explosion also seriously weakened the structure of the facility, leaving it highly unstable, and there was also extensive smoke damage. The packaging area was totally destroyed and in all 12% of the refinery was demolished by the explosion. Removal of debris commenced the day after the accident with assistance from structural engineers, and all six missing were found deceased the same day, three of them in tunnels running beneath the factory. The final death toll was thirteen. It was the first major shutdown of a US sugar refinery since American Sugar Refining Inc.'s Domino Sugar shut down their plant in Chalmette, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

By February 14, 2008, the worst of the fire had been extinguished but the 100 foot (30 m) sugar storage silos remained alight despite attempts to put the fire out by dousing them with thousands of gallons of water from a helicopter. Specialist crews and equipment were called in to complete work tackling the smoldering, molten sugar the silos contained. At this time seven bodies had been recovered, and an eighth person had died in the hospital.