Fireball Erupts at Jacksonville Chemical Company
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It happened just before 2 p.m.
A "hellish inferno" erupted at a chemical company on the Northside of Jacksonville. As of last count, four are dead and 22 are injured many were transported to local hospitals. Tonight reports are everyone has been accounted for.
More than 100 firefighters were called to the industrial facility on Faye Road and tonight there are still hot spots they are fighting. The fire was so hot that a trucker passing nearby says it melted his cell phone.
Taking a look at the proximity to the twin towers of JEA's Northside power plant, it might have appeared that they were on fire but it actually occured across the street. The plant was evacuated and some power was briefly disrupted.
"This was unlike any noise I'm sure any of us have ever heard," Kevin, who works at the port on Blount Island, told Channel 4. "It literally shook the whole building. We walked outside and saw what was reminiscent of a nuclear explosion -- that kind of cloud formation you see when a nuclear explosion goes off."
Thick black smoke billowed miles around the area for a couple of hours. Officials say it is not toxic.
CNN called Kathy Jones a manager of a Holiday Inn two miles away and she told the cable network that the initial explosion blew the glass doors off the front of her hotel.
Shands has taken in 10 victims and a doctor there reports one is in critical condition. Workers are being "decontaminated" from the smoke and exposure to chemicals that might be present.
The explosion at the T2 Labs where solvents and gasoline additives are made forced firefighters to respond to the three-alarm fire with hazardous materials protections.
"It was a pandemonium," said Byron Evetts, an engineer working at the JEA plant who is also a trained rescue worker. "It was a large explosion.... Best we could tell, there was no structure left. It was like the entire structure had been removed."
State road 9A at Alta was reopened about 6 tonight. Expect OSHA to figure prominently in the investigation of this chemical disaster.
For more information on this subject please refer to the section on Workplace Injuries.