First Hand Look at Imperial Sugar Explosion Site

Investigations continue into what caused the deadly explosion at the Imperial Sugar Plant in Port Wentworth.

While sugar dust is to blame, federal agencies like the Chemical Safety Board and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration continue to look into what ignited the combustible

dust on February seventh.

To date the horrific incident has taken the lives of 13 people and 9 still remain at the Augusta Burn Center, three of them in critical condition.

Today News Threes Alice Massimi and photojournalist Art Ottimo were able to get a close-up look at the destruction caused by this horrific incident.

It's all a twisted maze of steel with sugar still waiting to be shipped next to piles of debris still lying where it landed the night of February 7th.

It's a horrific graveyard that takes your breath away.

“I will always remember where I was standing and what our people have lived through,” says CEO John Sheptor as he looks out over the damage. 

Sheptor was our guide for a first hand look at the destruction.

“As best we can tell the blast was not directly out, it was kind of in a diagonal,” he explains.

The plan is for the entire area here to be taken out and rebuilt a process Mr Sheptor says will take up to 18 months but it’s a process that can’t start till OSHA completes their investigation

“They have not completed their investigation. We believe that will continue for weeks into the future with different experts going into the debris and looking for evidence,” says Sheptor.

OSHA has also inspected Imperial's Plant in Gramercy, Louisiana where they described the dust level as “thick and an imminent danger.”

“We believe we were operating in good faith and in good judgment to how we managed that part of the plant and other parts of the plant,” Sheptor adds in regard to the plant.

Imperial has voluntarily shut down that section of the plant for clean up and should re-open next week. 

As for standards in Port Wentworth when the plant is built, “We will rebuild the facility to the best knowledge we have with regard to the management of combustible dust whether that be a regulation or an industrial standard.”

The National Fire Protection Association creates and maintains minimum standards for fire prevention and suppression activities.

The NFPA has created standards for combustible dust but despite the Chemical Safety Board's strong recommendation two years ago for OSHA to adopt them, they have not. 

Currently in Washington DC lawmakers including Congressmen John Barrow and Jack Kingston are working to force OSHA to adopt those standards.