Three workers missing after Chicago-area plant explosion
(Reuters) - Three workers were missing on Saturday after an explosion at a silicone plant in a Chicago suburb that injured four other employees, a fire official said.
Video from the incident showed the blast lit up the night sky on Friday in Waukegan, a community 40 miles (65 km) north of downtown Chicago.
“Due to the chemicals that were in the building and the structural instability, it has been deemed unsafe for us to continue any search for the three subjects that are still unaccounted for,” Waukegan Fire Marshal Steven Lenzi said at a news conference on Saturday.
Nine employees were in the building at the time of the blast, and four have been hospitalized while two others did not require treatment, Lenzi said.
Local media reports identified the plant as AB Specialty Silicones. A representative for the company was not immediately available for comment.
The 30,000-square foot (2,800 square meters) plant operated around the clock, Lenzi said, and most of the chemicals on site were used to produce silicone.
Images of the plant from local media showed its walls stripped away, leaving only a shell of a building with girders and scraps of roofing material.
The cause of the explosion and fire was under investigation, authorities said. The Lake County Coroner’s Office has officials at the scene.
Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis
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