Rescuers hunted yesterday for survivors or more dead in the rubble of a US power plant after a massive gas explosion tore it apart and killed at least five workers.
Officials cautioned that they did not know how many people were in the Kleen Energy plant, which was still being built, and therefore they could not immediately account for everyone who may have been present.
“We know that 12 individuals have been injured. Five individuals are known to have lost their lives,” Sebastian Giuliano, the mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, told a news conference on Sunday.
TESTING PROCEDURE
Terrorism had been ruled out, according to the mayor, who said the accident, which shook houses kilometers away, happened during a testing procedure.
Rescue workers helped by search dogs scoured the rubble at the plant where a brief, but fierce fire following the accident sent flames and black smoke billowing skyward.
“There was like a fireball going up and a lot of smoke. The explosion was strong enough to break one of our windows. Our neighbors had also their windows destroyed,” said Scott Harmann, 44, whose father lives in a house just across the Connecticut River from the plant.
Amid confusion over the number of casualties local officials immediately warned of the potential for carnage.
“There was a massive explosion, there are multiple injuries and possible fatalities,” Middletown police spokesman George Yepes said soon after the blast.
“The reports vary from a few to possibly as many as 50 dead,” Brian Albert from the Middlesex hospital, which was treating several of those injured, said in the immediate aftermath.
MISSING
A Middletown fire official said it was “initially thought there was approximately 50 employees” there at the time and that “it’s unknown how many people are missing.”
Giuliano said “there could be anywhere from 100 to 200 people working on the site on any given day. Exactly what’s that number, that’s the starting point and that’s the number they can’t nail down today.”
“Fortunately what I was told is that most of the people working there were evacuated from the building when they ran the test,” he said.
A local resident told the Hartford Courant newspaper that the explosion took place during a test of the plant’s power generating systems.
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