Guthrie, Ky.–One person died and several others were injured in an industrial accident in Guthrie Wednesday.
According to the Todd County Emergency Management, local and state agencies along with private contractors worked all afternoon and into the night to stabilize the scene and care for the victims. There will be additional investigations and clean up going on today as well.
The Todd County Emergency Management released this statement on the incident:
“So far this is what is known about the incident.
Starting around noon a vacuum truck waste hauler from Onsite Environmental was removing a alkaline lye solution from a holding tank at the Quick Turn Anodizing facility on 2nd street. Near the end of that process, at a few minutes before 1:00 what was described as white smoke or steam was seen coming from the area of the truck which was parked directly in front of the building. Within minutes the tank containing approximately 300 gallons of the solution catastrophically failed at it’s end cap seam. The end cap flew approximately 125’ to the north landing in a vacant lot the remainder of the tank went through the exterior of the building, through an interior partition hit a support beam and finally coming to a stop about 100’ away just short of exiting the rear of the building. The fatality occurred when this flying tank struck two employees working near the center of the facility. Also injured were the driver of the truck who was standing near it and was thrown into the vacant lot, a Guthrie city employee who had seen the initial smoke and went to investigate and another Quick Turn employee who was inside the building.
The investigation into the cause is ongoing by the Kentucky State Fire Marshall and the Kentucky Environmental Cabinet. At this time it is believed that for some reason an organic fat such as cooking oil became mixed with the alkaline waste water in the tank which resulted in an exothermic saponification reaction. This reaction raised the temperature inside the tank causing the water portion of the solution to boil. This raised the pressure inside it to a point beyond its designed strength resulting in the failure of the tank seam.
Attached is a frame from the facility security video showing the tank just before it came to a stop near the rear doors of the building.
Agencies which responded to this incident include:
Guthrie Fire and Police
Todd and Logan Co EMS
Montgomery Co TN EMS
Vanderbilt Life Flight
Todd Co Rescue Squad
Todd Co Emergency Management
Todd Co Coroner
Todd Co Burden Bearers
Allensville Fire Department
Hopkinsville Fire Department
Kentucky State Fire Marshall
Kentucky Environmental Cabinet