LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Two employees of a Louisville manufacturing plant were killed and several others were injured after an explosion Tuesday afternoon.
The explosion shattered windows and shook homes in the Clifton neighborhood, just east of downtown.
Stefanie Lauber, Head of Corporate Communications for Givaudan International, confirmed the deaths Wednesday morning in a statement.
“On Tuesday, late afternoon U.S. time, there was an explosion at the Sense Colour factory in Louisville, Kentucky. We are deeply saddened to share the news that two of our team members lost their lives in this accident. Several other individuals were also injured as a result. We are grieving with the families, friends, and loved ones of those that were lost and injured during this very difficult time.”
Family confirmed to WDRB on Wednesday morning that Austin Jaggers, 29, was one of the victims of the explosion.
Residents across Louisville reported feeling the explosion around 3 p.m. Tuesday, which occurred at Givaudan Sense Colour at 1901 Payne St., just east of Interstate 64 in the Clifton neighborhood.
Louisville first responders quickly responded to what it called a “hazardous materials incident” and issued a shelter in place for a 1-mile radius from the area. At 4:40 p.m., EMA lifted the shelter-in-place but said an evacuation order for the two blocks surrounding the building remained in place.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a news conference around 4:30 p.m. that the cause of the explosion isn’t yet known.
“There are still a lot of unknowns,” he said.
In a news release Tuesday night, Greenberg’s office said 12 patients with various injuries were taken to University of Louisville Hospital and Baptist East Hospital. Greenberg’s office also said Louisville Fire Department continues to search the building Tuesday night to see if all employees have been located.
UofL Hospital downtown treated seven of the 11 employees injured. Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer for UofL Health, said during a news conference just before 6 p.m. that two of those seven patients are in critical condition, and the types of injures range from burns to blunt force, penetration, and crushing injuries from debris.
“The other five patients are “stable,” Smith said.
“That’s the biggest problem with blast injuries, it’s a little bit of everything. It can be burns, it can be blunt injuries, it can be penetrating injuries, trapped by debris, chemical exposures.”
Heather Graves’ driveway backs right up to the plant’s property.
UofL Hospital officials also said they activated their “decontamination unit/procedures,” and Louisville Fire Department officials also responded to the hospital helping with decontamination. The decontamination process can take up to 15 minutes depending on the exposure to chemicals, according to Smith.
Louisville Metro Police set up a “triage area” near the explosion scene, and several businesses nearby on Frankfort Avenue had all their windows blown out.
Several schools in the area reported delayed dismissal at the request of emergency officials.
Hannah Hinshaw wasn’t able to get into her house after the explosion. She was at work when her home’s alarms went off.
“I’m really worried about a lot of us, I know a lot of us never really liked having that factory there, so I think this just goes to show why,” Hinshaw said.
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Louisville Fire Department is leading the investigation, along with state and federal partners. According to a news release, a federal reconstruction team from the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is headed to Louisville to determine the cause of the incident.
WDRB has obtained some of the 911 calls about the explosion.
Previous Explosion
The address of the explosion is Givaudan Sense Colour, an affiliate of Swiss-based fragrance and food coloring company Givaudan that bought D.D. Williamson in 2021. Givaudan Sense Color is headquartered in Louisville and has locations in Wisconsin, Brazil, England, Ireland, China, Malaysia and Africa.
In 2003, records show the D.D. Williamson plant was the site of an explosion that killed one employee and caused the release of aqua ammonia. A few dozen people in the area had to be evacuated. 1,500 residents were forced to shelter in place.
In 2003, the property, then operated by D.D. Williamson, was the site of an explosion that killed one employee.
The blast occurred in a vessel called a feed tank used in the manufacturing of caramel coloring for food. Inspectors at the time concluded that the company did not have basic standards in place to determine if the equipment was sound. D.D. Williamson also was faulted for failing to properly train workers about the risks of feed tanks overheating. The feed tank likely failed and burst because it overheated, causing extreme pressure, investigators concluded.
The Kentucky Labor Cabinet, which oversees the state’s workplace safety program, fined D.D. Williamson $10,000 in connection with that blast. Four citations were for “serious” violations, including one under a federal rule requiring employers to keep areas free of known hazards that could kill or injure workers.
D.D. Williamson later agreed to pay $600,000 in civil penalties over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and its regulations. The company improved the Louisville plant after the 2003 explosion, building a new facility for its manufacturing operations, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
D.D. Williamson also was faulted for failing to properly train workers about the risks of feed tanks overheating.
As part of that federal consent decree, D.D. Williamson was ordered to conduct an independent full hazard study and enact those recommendations, as well as to train managers in assessing risks.
There are no known safety violations in the past 10 years at the plant, according to online records.
But in 2023, the plant agreed to $7,500 in fines to settle allegations from Louisville’s Air Pollution Control District. City regulators claimed plant officials did not notify them about excess emissions and did not submit annual compliance reports.
An explosion at a Givaudan plant in northern Kentucky in late 2012 scattered debris but didn’t injure anyone.
This story will be updated.
A shelter in place was issued for a 1-mile radius from the area, EMS said.
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