LOUISVILLE, KY — At least 11 employees were taken to the hospital after an explosion Tuesday at a Louisville, Kentucky, company that makes natural colors for food and beverages.
The explosion, which occurred at Givaudan Sense Color around 3 p.m., smashed windows and blew out doors of nearby homes and businesses. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a statement Tuesday night that responding firefighters rescued many people from inside the building, including some with life-threatening injuries.
News video showed a partially collapsed industrial building with its central section on fire. The cause remained unknown.
University of Louisville Hospital treated seven of the injured, two of whom were in critical condition, said Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer of the University of Louisville Health. Smith said hospital officials activated a decontamination procedure, a process in which they removed all chemicals on the victim’s clothing and body and removed the patient for evaluation and treatment. Other patients were also taken to Baptist East Hospital, Greenberg said.
A Givaudan spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Tuesday night. The company’s Louisville office did not answer the phone, and a man at the company’s Port Washington, Wisconsin, office declined to comment.
Greenberg said officials spoke with employees inside the plant. “They initially told us that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
Greenberg said authorities have counted everyone working at the factory at the time of the explosion.
Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill said air monitoring began immediately after the explosion and “there are no indications of any type of chemical issue in the air throughout the area at this time.” O’Neill added that fire officials “still don’t know exactly what type of leaks may occur or may be in progress.” He called on residents to remain calm.
Louisville Metro Emergency Services had asked people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted about two hours after the explosion.
The Louisville Fire Department was leading the investigation with assistance from state and federal partners as of Tuesday night. A reconstruction team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traveled to Louisville to help determine the cause of the explosion.
The explosion destroyed several windows in the nearby business district, and many were boarded up at night.
Steve Palovec was cleaning glass around the fourplex apartment complex where he lives just a block away from the factory. While he was at work, an explosion blew out the kitchen window.
“You never expected something like this to happen in your neighborhood,” Palobeck said outside his apartment.
He said as temperatures steadily dropped Tuesday night, he realized the cat was safe when he arrived home and used two pizza boxes and duct tape to cover the windows. The blast blew out 10 windows in the building.
“I was lucky. I only had one,” he said.
Patrick Rivers lives just across the railroad tracks from the factory. The mother, who was picking up her children from school and taking them home, called her on FaceTime at work to tell her that her home had been damaged by an explosion.
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?'” Then she showed me the video. “I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,'” he said.
Rivers said no one was home at the time of the explosion. He said the explosion blew out windows up and down the street.
“The house is still standing. It’s just structural damage. If it’s on the walls, it’s on the floors,” he said. “All of my neighbors’ windows were broken and their doors were blown out. It looked like there was a small tornado inside the house.”
In April 2003, a worker was killed in a similar explosion at a caramel coloring factory owned by DD Williamson. Givaudan acquired the factory from DD Williamson in 2021.
Federal investigators determined that the tank’s pressure relief valve had been removed when the company moved the tank to its Louisville plant in 1989. According to a report by the Chemical Safety Commission, the tank exploded because it did not have a relief valve.
The explosion killed Louis C. Perry, 44, of Louisville, who investigators said was standing next to the 2,200-gallon tank when it exploded. Neighboring residents were also evacuated after the explosion.
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Associated Press journalists John Lavie and Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report.
