INSTITUTE, W.Va. — The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has launched an investigation into this week chemical emergency at the Ames Goldsmith Catalyst Refiners facility in Institute that claimed the lives of two workers and left a third in critical condition.
“We are opening an investigation into this tragic incident to determine how it happened and identify ways to help prevent something like this from happening again,” CSB Chairperson Steve Owens said in a news release.
Kanawha County and state authorities have said there was an explosive mixture of chemicals in a building where a chemical tank was being decommissioned. The workers were overcome by toxic hydrogen sulfide gas. CPR was performed within minutes. The names of the victims have not been released.
Chemical Safety Board Member Sylvia Johnson said a full investigation into what happened will take place.
“This incident has had a real impact on workers, and on the surrounding community. Understanding what went wrong is essential so that facilities handling hazardous chemicals can operate more safely and responsibly,” Johnson said.
The CSB does not issue citations or fines but it makes safety recommendations.
The CSB has been part of a number of investigations in the Kanawha Valley in past years including the 2020 Optima Belle plant explosion that killed one worker, the 2014 water crisis that was caused by a chemical leak and the 2008 Bayer CropScience Plant explosion at Institute that claimed two lives.
CAMC Vandalia Health Safety Officer Dr. Anthony Uy said the response to Wednesday’s emergency came on the heels of recent training.
“We practice internally. We practice externally with the state and county. We had to spend a lot of time (Wednesday) telling people this was not a drill because we had just completed a drill with he West Virginia Hospital Association on a medical response surge exercise,” Uy said during an appearance on MetroNews Midday.
He said the cooperation between what are usually competing hospital systems, Vandalia and WVU Medicine, couldn’t have gone better when patients, who had been exposed to the dangerous fumes, were transported to CAMC and Thomas.
“We, especially the provider teams, know that there’s going to be competition, that’s business, but we also know that when the community needs us we are going to collaborate to make sure we are delivering care anywhere, anyway that we can to make sure we get the best outcome for all of our citizens,” Uy said.
Former state EMS Director Dr. Bill Ramsey, who teaches in the WVU School of Medicine, said he’s seen and participated in a lot of emergency response through the years in West Virginia and the response Wednesday in Kanawha County was impressive.
“I mean always in these emergency situations it takes extra effort and there’s always a few little glitches but the decontamination, the response, the caution that was taken by the first responders, the information given by the press briefing, was all from my perspective textbook,” Ramsey said.
West Virginia State University President Ericke Cage said those at State are thankful that their protocols worked like they were supposed to Wednesday. The WVSU campus was under a shelter in place longer than any other area.
Cage said they did not one thing that needs changed. He said they had more than enough water for those who were sheltering in place but they didn’t have many food items.
“Going forward we are going to look at our procedures and make sure we are storing those non-perishable food items in our shelter in place location so they are available when something like this happens again,” Cage said.