PORT WENTWORTH, GA (AP) — Crews on Saturday found another body in the remnants of the sugar refinery plant devastated by an explosion and fire, raising the death toll to five and leaving
three others still missing, officials said.
The body was found near the silos used to store sugar after crews shored up the plant’s wobbly remnants, Fire Chief Greg Long said. Three workers and a supervisor were believed to be missing, but it was not clear whether the body was that of a worker or the supervisor.
“We operate on the policy that everyone is alive until we get to them,” he said.
The search was expected to be suspended for the night, and resume again Sunday.
Fire Chief Greg Long says crews had reduced the flames to small hotspots at the Imperial Sugar Company refinery.
He says search teams that had backed out overnight because of structural concerns from the blast resumed looking for the last of
the missing in the morning.
Crews brought in heavy equipment to remove debris as investigators continued assessing what sparked the blast that ignited a storage silo.
Imperial President and CEO John Sheptor says sugar dust in a silo where refined sugar was stored before being packaged likely
ignited like gunpowder. Sugar dust can become combustible if it’s too dry and builds up a static electric charge.
Sheptor was at the plant when it exploded.
“It was a loud noise. There was a very quick response to move everyone out of the building as quick as possible.”
The result was as devastating as a bomb. Floors inside the plant collapsed, flames spread throughout the refinery, metal girders buckled into twisted heaps and shredded sheet metal littered the wreckage.
More than 30 employees were rushed to hospitals as ambulances lined up a dozen at a time outside the refinery’s sole entrance road.
Source: First Coast News
This is the second major explosion from an industrial accident in the area in two months. By all accounts, the emergency response people did an outstanding job in both states.
A1A South 
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