At least 11 injured at Givaudan Sense Color plant

An explosion hit the Clifton area just after 3pm on Tuesday afternoon, sending at least 11 people to hospital and shattering windows in the neighbourhood.

Follow the news from the scene.

In a statement, Givaudian, the owner of the Clifton-area plant, said in the evening that two employees were on the scene after Tuesday’s explosion.

Two patients injured in the explosion are in critical condition, University of Louisville Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jason Smith said during the meeting. press conference Tuesday evening.

Five other patients receiving treatment are in stable condition, Smith said. UofL is treating seven of the 11 patients injured in the blast.

Louisville explosion: At least 11 injured at Givaudan Sense Color plant

An explosion in the 1900 block of Payne Street in Clifton sent 11 people to the hospital. No deaths were reported.

Two patients injured in the explosion are in critical condition, Dr. Jason Smith, chief physician at the University of Louisville Hospital, said at a press conference.

Five other patients receiving treatment are in stable condition, Smith said. UofL is treating seven of the 11 people hospitalized in the blast.

Smith said the patients suffered injuries from the force of the explosion, burns or debris that fell during the explosion.

Patients who received UofL were cleaned in a decontamination process before their wounds were treated, he said.

“For something like this, they’ve been exposed to a lot of different chemicals, so we made sure we decontaminated them from all of them,” Smith said.

Jacob Hayden has lived on Payne Street for about ten years and “could throw a rock” at the factory where he lives.

He had left work earlier after seeing media reports of the blast. After waiting behind the yellow caution tape for about an hour, the authorities finally allowed him to go home. Several windows were broken, items fell from shelves, and his two cats were shaken, he said.

He said the idea that the accident could affect him, who lives just outside the factory doors, had been in his head for years. He heard about an explosion in 2003 at the same facility, but the concern that something serious could be affected seems more real now, he said.

Hayden questions the feasibility of allowing the plant to operate in a predominantly residential area.

“If you ask me, there shouldn’t be a factory in a residential area. In general,” he said. “You need to study the company for a long time.”

Factory explosion in the 1900 block of Payne Street in the Clifton neighborhood

First responders and city officials responded to the scene of a plant explosion in the 1900 block of Payne Street in the Clifton neighborhood

Sam Upshaw Jr.

Officials say 11 people were hospitalized after an explosion in the 1900 block of Payne Street in the Clifton neighborhood Tuesday afternoon, though no deaths were reported.

A shelter-in-place order for a 1-mile radius of the blast was lifted at 4:39 p.m., according to a LENSAlert from Louisville Metro Emergency Services. Officials urged people to stay away from the area as the investigation continues.

Officers from the Louisville Police Department’s 5th Precinct blocked off the roadway near the scene. This was announced by LMPD representatives on social networks.

A WAVE-TV weather camera captured the incident, showing large amounts of smoke coming from the building Tuesday afternoon.

Students at Breckinridge-Franklin Elementary, located 0.8 miles from the blast site, and Lincoln Elementary Performing Arts School, just over 2 miles from the blast site, were sheltering in place Tuesday afternoon, but shortly before 4 p.m. received permission to dissolve. District spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan said.

Students at the Kentucky School for the Blind also sheltered in place, officials said on Facebook. All students are safe and accounted for at school.

“It was so loud. I couldn’t believe it’

Arthur Smith, a Clifton resident, said he was walking down South Spring Street when he heard the crash. “I heard it and felt it in the ground,” he said. “Tell you what, it got your attention.”

Smith isn’t sure exactly what happened, but he said it’s unlike anything he’s had to deal with living in the neighborhood.

Karen Roberts, assistant community director for Axis in Lexington, was showing the apartment to a potential tenant when she heard the explosion. Tenants at the 300-unit Clifton complex rushed to their balconies to see what had happened, she said.

“It was so loud. I couldn’t believe it,” she said in her office, about a block from the police roadblock on Payne Street. “… You can see the plant in some people’s back windows.”

Residents were briefly locked out when the power went out in the complex, but were able to get back in when the lights came back on about 10 seconds later, she said.

Eric Hart and his partner, who owns a house across the street from the blast site, arrived in the area near the explosion around 4:10 p.m. after receiving a call from their tenant saying the impact had shattered windows.

The couple came hoping to help their lodger get out of the house, where she is still hiding. They also brought material to board up the windows, Hart said.

Last year, the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control Department issued two violation notices against the Givaudan Sense Color facility on Payne Street.

In one case, the county alleged that the company “failed to submit annual reports, semi-annual reports and annual certificates of compliance on time, and failed to monitor and record equipment ranges” as required by the facility’s permit.

In another case, the county said the company failed to report excessive emissions as required by county rules.

Both cases were settled with the county for a total of $7,500, according to county records.

In April 2003, an explosion at the plant released 26,000 pounds of aqueous ammonia, or a solution of ammonia in water, according to an investigation by the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Committee.

The explosion, which ruptured a supply tank, killed one worker and prompted the evacuation of 26 people and the evacuation of 1,500 people.

The board’s investigation found that the company did not have “effective programs to determine whether equipment and processes meet basic process and plant engineering requirements,” and that it did not have adequate operating procedures and training programs for plant operators.

Ebony Cochran, an environmental justice advocate with Rubbertown Emergency ACTion, said the Clifton explosion is a stark example of how vulnerable communities can be when chemical plants are located near residential neighborhoods.

“There’s a very good chance that a lot of people who live in this city think that sheltering in place is just staying home, when it’s not. It is also likely that many of those who evacuated did not have backpacks ready,” she said. the statement says. “There are many questions that the residents of this area should ask. I hope that the information will be fully disclosed.”

Monica Unseld, a local environmental justice and public health advocate, called on the city to support and adopt the Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals after the explosion.

“This explosion again highlights the need for communities to have a ‘right to know’ when it comes to chemicals in their communities,” she said in a statement. “It also highlights the fact that all workplaces must be safe for workers and the surrounding communities.”

This is a current story that will be updated.