GhLinks Media
Two people were killed in a factory explosion in Louisville on Tuesday, including Austin Jaggers, a worker identified by his family on social media.
The explosion, which occurred around 3 p.m. in the Clifton neighborhood, sent a loud blast echoing miles away and led to nearly 300 emergency calls to 911, officials said.
Firefighters arrived minutes after the first emergency calls, discovering a scene of devastation. “It was clear that an enormous explosion had taken place,” said Mayor Craig Greenberg.
Investigators have yet to determine the cause, though authorities stated they have found no signs of foul play.
The air quality around the area is being monitored, and tests are ongoing to check for any hazardous substances.
According to officials, Tuesday night’s search efforts initially led firefighters to believe that everyone had been safely evacuated.
However, they later received reports of a missing worker.
Early Wednesday morning, after re-entering the partially collapsed building, firefighters located the missing worker’s body.
The worker, later identified by family as Austin Jaggers, was found amidst debris, with significant injuries.
On his Facebook profile, Mr. Jaggers had described himself as an industrial maintenance technician.
Several other workers, all employees of the company, had been transported to an area hospital with a “spectrum” of injuries: blast injuries, thermal injuries and injuries from fallen debris, according to Jason Smith, a trauma physician at UofL Health, who also spoke at the news conference.
Brian O’Neill, the chief of the Louisville Fire Department, said it had been particularly challenging for firefighters to evacuate workers from the plant because they were simultaneously confronting a fire, a partial building collapse and the possible release of hazardous materials.
When firefighters learned late Tuesday of the worker who was still not accounted for, they carefully re-entered the plant to search for the person, aware of the potential for a secondary collapse, Chief O’Neill said.
“They set up shoring and everything to take care of that,” he said, “and it took several hours to finally get to the victim and dig them out.”
