Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990 TAG: 9007200374
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CINCINNATI LENGTH: Medium
The two explosions ignited a fire that took 2 1/2 hours to contain enough so that firefighters could enter the four-story brick building.
The blast sent fireballs 50 feet into the sky. A column of thick, black smoke poured from the building into the surrounding residential neighborhood. Some of the injured were cut by shattered glass at a supermarket.
Fire Chief Bill Miller said the plant had accounted for all its employees. He said up to 63 people were injured. Area hospitals said they were treating 56 people; four were critically injured.
About 1,000 people were evacuated from houses in the neighboring incorporated area of Norwood for the night while authorities checked for structural damage, said Norwood safety director Darryll Maxwell. He said six homes had been declared uninhabitable.
Air tests performed by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency around the plant found no toxic gases in the smoke, Miller said.
About 200 people work at the BASF Corp. plant, which makes linings for cans and coatings for paper cups. The building contained about 50 chemicals, including explosive solvents and varnishes, workers at the scene said.
Volatile and explosive solvents may have leaked from a mixing vat and been ignited by a spark, said Malcolm Adcock, an assistant health commissioner. But he stressed this was merely a hypothesis.
Kenneth D. Diedenhofer, a BASF production manager, said the company was investigating the possibility of a "pressure buildup" of chemicals in equipment that was being cleaned.
Dan Delaney, who works near the plant, said he saw a huge ball of fire and smoke out his office window.
"Shortly thereafter, everybody was running down the street, out of the building to get out, sort of in a panic, just getting out of there as fast as they could," Delaney said.
Ken Kinderman, 29, a materials handler at the factory, said he was walking out of a locker room in an adjacent building when the explosion occurred.
"I opened the door and when the explosion hit, it threw me back through the locker room," Kinderman said. He said he had cuts on his back and arms, but was not seriously injured.
The dead man was identified as Lawrence H. Krechting, 58, an employee at the plant.
Diedenhofer said he was in a lab next door when the first explosion occurred about 2:15 p.m.
The second blast occurred about 2:50 p.m., and that blast apparently did most of the damage, Diedenhofer said.
by CNB