Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 4 april 2017

At Press Time:

Fire chief: 3 dead, 4 hurt when boiler explodes in St. Louis

JIM SUHR but investigators were
Associated Press trying to pinpoint what
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — caused the cast iron boil-
An explosion launched a er — estimated to weigh
van-sized boiler through a ton to a ton and a half
the roof a St. Louis box — to explode, Jenkerson
company and slammed said. The blast occurred in
much of it down onto a a largely industrial area of
laundry business across the south St. Louis.
street on Monday, killing Two injured victims were in
three people and injuring critical condition, and one
four others, authorities said. was undergoing surgery,
One person died in the Jenkerson said. The injured
blast about 8 a.m. at the include a linen company
Loy-Lange Box Co. and two worker who was found
others were killed when a pinned beneath the boiler,
large piece of the boiler which Jenkerson said was
crashed into the nearby roughly 4 feet in diameter
Faultless Healthcare Linen and 10 feet long (1.2 me-
building’s office area, Fire ters in diameter and 3 me- This Monday, April 3, 2017 photo from video provided by KMOV shows damage to the roof of a
Chief Dennis Jenkerson ters long). The boiler was box company in St. Louis after a boiler exploded and flew before crashing through the roof of a
said. used to produce steam to nearby laundry business. Authorities said several people were killed as a result of the explosion.
The explosion appears to power the box company’s (KMOV via AP)
have been an accident, equipment. The boiler was still hot when the U.S. Department of La-
rescuers arrived, the fire bor’s Occupational Safety
chief said, noting that the and Health Administration
equipment traveled up to were on the scene.
500 feet (150 meters). It wasn’t immediately clear
Though none of the victims’ if anyone was working on
names has been released, the boiler at the time of the
Faultless Healthcare Linen’s blast.
chief operating officer, OSHA’s online records
Mark Spence, told the St. show that Loy-Lange was
Louis Post-Dispatch the cited last year for a “gen-
three victims there were eral requirement” arising
new hires who were fill- from holes in floors that
ing out paperwork when prevented proper clean-
the boiler came crashing ing. The company paid a
down on them, killing two $3,741 fine, half of what
and injuring the third. OSHA initially assessed.
“It’s emotionally over- The company also paid a
whelming just to think what $6,566 fine in 2015, and a
these poor people experi- $2,450 fine the year before
enced,” Spence said. that for what OSHA classi-
A third building was dam- fied as “serious” violations.
aged when a piece of In 2014, the company paid
pipe — about 8 feet (2.5 $2,450 of an initial $3,500
meters) long — linked to fine for improper energy
the explosion went through control procedures, such
its roof, Jenkerson said. as failing to properly train
Other debris was found on employees to ensure ma-
the street. chinery was turned off
Investigators will seek out and powered down and
and review the boiler’s for not conducting annual
inspection and mainte- energy control inspections.
nance records, though “it OSHA spokesman Scott Al-
appears just to be a com- len couldn’t say if that vio-
mercial accident,” Jenker- lation had anything to do
son said. Investigators from with the boiler.q