Washington - The bodies of three people were found and a
further three people were presumed dead in a massive explosion that
injured dozens more at a sugar refinery in the south-eastern state of
Georgia, authorities said Friday.
More than 60 people were injured and 15 remained in critical
condition with severe burns after the blast, which occurred Thursday
night near the city of Savannah. The fire had been contained but not
yet extinguished by Friday morning.
Police said efforts to rescue the missing had been halted.
'This has really shifted from a rescue operation to a recovery
operation,' Savannah-Chatham County Police Chief Michael Berkow said
in broadcast remarks.
Savannah Fire Department officials said the explosion happened
Thursday in the bagging section of the factory. An investigation into
the cause of the blast was ongoing, but authorities speculated that
sugar dust from the refining process may have ignited.
Police evacuated some areas near the Imperial Sugar refinery in
the Fort Wentworth area of suburban Savannah shortly after the
explosion and subsequent fire. The worst injured were airlifted to a
special to a burn centre in Augusta.
'We heard the explosion and we saw the sparks and the flames shoot
up,' Joyce Baker, the first emergency responder on the scene, told
local station WTOC-TV.
'The ground shook, my husband was with me and we raced over here.
He's a Port Wentworth police officer. I got my trauma bag out and by
the time we got out there, there were already 13 people coming out
with third degree burns and it was like walking into hell,' she said.
Reports said residents as far away Garden City and Levy, in the
neighbouring state of South Carolina, heard and in some cases felt
the explosion.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story